Boy Meets Girl

There is one book that I read when I was 18 years-old by Joshua Harris that forever changed the way I did relationships from that point forward along with a series that Louie Giglio did with the same title coincidently enough the book and the series are titled, “Boy Meets Girl.”  The Lord has brought this particular story from the book to my mind many times, just as a reminder to surrender and trust. There is one other story in the book that the Lord brings to mind often. But for whatever reason I can't shake this one tonight. I haven't read the book in years (honestly) but tonight just really felt like I needed to share this couples story.  Nothing is impossible for God! There is a season for everything, and God makes everything beautiful in His timing. 

An Early Morning Funeral

 Boy Meets Girl by: Joshua Harris

“Rich was digging a hole in Christy’s front yard that night to bury a box that contained all the letters they’d written each other. There were over one hundred handwritten pages inside it.

            Had his feelings for Christy changed? Not at all. But he realized that he couldn’t be guided just by his feelings. He had to act on principle and do what was in Christy’s best interest. He couldn’t just do what felt right; he had to do what was right. Even though it hurt, he knew that the most caring thing he could do for the girl he loved was to get out of her life and end the relationship that was distracting both of them from serving God and obeying her parents.

            It took Rich nearly two hours of digging to finish the hole. He made it two feet wide by three feet long and eighteen inches deep so it would be beneath the frost line. He picked up the box of letters and laid it gently into the ground. He had wrapped it tightly in several layers of plastic. Rich wanted his hopes to be able to stay in the ground for a long time…maybe even forever . For 18 year-old Rich, that moment was the funeral of his dreams. He was submitting his feelings and longings to God. He stared at the box one last time, looked up at the quiet house, and then pushed the dirt he’d unearthed back into the hole and packed it down with his foot. “If you want to dig this up someday, I know you can,” he told God. “But if not, this is where it will stay.” He covered the spot with sod, the quietly stole away.

A month after Rich buried their love letters, both he and Christy left home for colleges in different parts of the country. They didn’t say goodbye. They didn’t write or call each other. Because their schools had different schedules, they didn’t see each other during the year. Those were difficult days. The love they felt for each other hadn’t gone away.

            A year and a half after they’d broken up, Christy called her mom from school and told her that he was till struggling with her feelings for Rich. When her dad found out, he asked if she knew how Rich was doing. “How would I know?” Christy answered, the emotions in her voice thinly veiled. “I haven’t talked to him since we broke up.” 

            Her dad was impressed. Rich had stuck to his word and broken off communication with Christy. Mike decided to intervene once more. A few months later, when Rich was home from college, Mike called him and asked him to come to his office.

            “I had no idea what he wanted to talk to me about,” Rich says. “ I thought I must be in trouble, but I couldn’t’ imagine what I’d done.”

            As it turned out, Rich wasn’t in trouble. Mike wanted to meet with him to thank him for keeping his word. He also wanted to tell him that he felt it was an appropriate time for Rich and Christy to begin a courtship.

            Rich was floored. He told Mick he needed time to pray about it. “Well, next wek I have to go down to Richmond,” Mike told him. “Why don’t you drive me down, and we can talk about it then?”

            A week later Rich and Mike were on the road again. It was just like old times. And it was time for another talk.

            Rich had prayed hard that week about starting a relationship with Christy again. But as he sought God, he sensed Him saying that it still wasn’t the right time for a courtship. “I still wasn’t ready to get married. I was still figuring out what I’d be doing for a living. It seemed that God was saying, “You committed to these principles, and you need to stick to them even if her dad is giving you the green light.”

            When Rich shared this with Christy’s dad, Mike couldn’t have been more surprised or more pleased. This time it was the young man who was sharing what God had taught him about waiting for the right time. Rich and Christy didn’t begin a courtship then, but they did start to talk and ease back into a friendship. A year later, with Christy still away at school, they began a long-distance courtship. Things were so different this time. Their relationship was just as romantic, but now it had purpose and direction. They had their parents’ blessings. Every day their confidence for marriage grew.

            All that time the box full of love letters lay hidden. Rich had never told Christy that he had buried them in her own front yard. She thought the letters had been burned. The Christmas before she graduated she found out otherwise.

            I didn’t tell you about one other thing Rich had put in that box before he buried it. When he carefully wrapped it years before, he placed one new letter on top of all the others. It was a letter Christy had never read. In it, Rich asked her to marry him.

            So, Christmas morning, over 4 years after it had been buried, the box of cherished letters was unearthed and opened. And four year after it had been written, Christy read Rich’s letter proposing marriage.

Today, Rich and Christy have a soaring story of romance because they were willing to be guided by wisdom. Anyone can have passionate feelings, but only those who seek God’s purpose and timing can know the true joy of romantic love fulfilled. Just ask Rich. In the very spot he buried his hopes, he saw them come to life. In the very place he knelt for a funeral of his dreams, he knelt four years later to ask Christy to be his bride. And as he pulled and engagement ring from his pocket, he heard her answer, “Yes!”

           

Before I even read that again tonight these two verse were playing my mind tonight

John 13:7 “Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”  Ps 46:10“Be still, and know that I am God.”

Wait patiently on the Lord, for He is faithful!