Rev. Sudha Mehta©

He was seventeen. One of my older teen clients and one of my most challenging.

Nate looked much older. Not the kind of a fellow you would want to encounter at night in the alley. He was a BIG guy who looked like he had gone over to the dark side. He wore only black, and sported long hair along with lots of silver and leather jewelry. It was obvious he wanted to LOOK the part of someone on the dark side.

The school had approved home schooling, and this was after a year away from home in a mental healthcare residential facility. His family could do no more, his parents were exhausted, his siblings tried to steer clear of him.

I visited him at home 2-3 times a week for an hour or two.

This may appear strange, but I liked Nate. We developed a relationship once he saw I wasn’t scared away as he had managed to do with many others. He looked forward to my visits . . . though sometimes, his moods being unpredictable, he chose to just sit and say nothing.

“I sold my sold to Satan” he said after I had been there a few weeks. I wondered if this was another attempt to see if I would be repulsed.

“Oh?!”

“When I was in residential treatment, I made a blood oath with Satan and sold my soul to him!!”

This was clearly serious . . . I listened in.

“I knew everyone had given up on me. No one liked me, so in the bathroom, on my own, I cut my hand, and made a blood oath. I am his.”

“Do you want to be?” I asked.

“Too late now.” he spoke matter-of-factly.

I remembered Dr. Faustus from my Literature class. The story of the man who sells his soul to the devil in return for 24 years of power and knowledge and a fantastic life. Only once the deal was made in blood did he discover that the deal (no longer revocable) was a farce. The riches he had seen through a veil were nothing but dust, the power evaporated as vapor, the knowledge not worth gaining, the women he had seen nothing but skeletons, and the wine brought no joy!

Here sat a young man, who had made the same deal in return for what??? To be accepted by some one.

I knew his parents though exhausted had indeed not given up on him. He still lived at home, and his mom championed his case with various school and mental health agencies. He was loved, but he had bought into the lies fed into his ear by the devil himself.

“Nate, would you like to cancel the deal you made? You see, I know someone whose Blood is much more powerful, and He can negate the deal very easily.”

He paused “You mean Jesus, you keep telling me about Him, I don’t know that I can accept it. but I will think about it.”

I suggested for our next session, we do something different. I suggested we meet at the Mall. “Perhaps your mom can drop you off and we will spend some time at the Mall, get some ice-cream, or window shop, anything you want to do.”

His looked incredulous, “You . . . you would want to go to the Mall with me . . . you and I, Mall, together???!! You will walk with me?”

“Yes, I assured him.”

His mom dropped him off. Nate had done well to make himself appear his best. The same but washed, all black clothing, studded bracelets, chains, eye liner, black lips, and yes, a big, LOOONG, black, leather, studded, dog-chain around his neck with the strap hanging down almost reaching the floor. I did not ask the obvious question!!

“Aaahhh!” this was going to be a challenge, I kept the thought to myself! But we walked the Mall. We chatted, we window shopped at the stores he wanted to look at. We got ice-cream and sat on the bench. Gaukers gauked, we got double looks and triple looks, but we enjoyed our ice cream.

Next week I went to Nate’s home, he sat on the porch strumming his guitar. When he saw me he smiled slightly and said,”You just missed them.”

“Who?”

Some people from the new church that just opened down the street. They came to invite the neighborhood. I told them I have a “Preach” come see me often.

I was amused, perhaps I was getting through.

Then he turned 18. He was now an adult. Things changed, my visits came to an end. On our last visit, I repeated what Christ could do for him, and reminded him he had a choice to make. I also repeated that he could look me up any time, and made him promise, that “when” not “if” he received Christ or wanted to receive Him, he would call me.

Several months later, the phone rang. it was Nate’s mom. “He is in the hospital, please come.”

I hurried over. Nate was in a coma. He had ingested some brew he cooked up with some promising looking weeds in the wild, hoping for a great high. His family was bereft. I prayed with him and them, we asked the Holy Spirit to reach him, and I left . . . .

He died.

Did the Holy Spirit manage to reach him? Did he say “Yes” to Jesus before passing on to the other side? I don’t know.

The question remains.

Sad ending to a story . . . I know.

But not every story has to have this ending. Perhaps you know someone who is in the throes of woes like this. Perhaps this story will encourage you to remain faithful in prayer, and not give up on the person you are praying for. Perhaps, your story will have a different and happy ending.

Are you another Nate? Perhaps you yourself need a better ending! Jesus waits!! His invitation is real, true and immediate. All you have to do is reach out. No formulas, no church, no one else, just you and Jesus. You ask . . . He responds. He makes new immediately as long as you are sincere. Are you?

Matthew 11: 28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest.

Revelation 3:20 Look! I am standing at the door and knocking. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he will eat with me. 21 To the one who conquers I will give a place to sit with me on my throne, just as I have conquered and have sat down with my Father on his throne.(ISV)

One Way-Jesus

Born From Above

Like us, Join us on https://www.facebook.com/OneWayStudies

Follow us on http://onewaystudies.com

You can find us even on Twitter and YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hiswaystudies

Help us get the Word out.