Grasshopper Epilogue
I don't know why I haven't posted all week: work has been busy, I'm trying to finish the hardwood floor (and getting close). I did have one unusual experience this week though: I talked to Grasshopper, Paul C., for more than an hour. I hadn't spoken to him in eight years, and not really spoken in longer than that.
And you know what, Paul is doing well. Remarkably well. He does live in Japan and was married last summer to a Japanese woman. He teaches English (ESL really) at a private college in Japan. He tells me it's impossible for foreigners to get tenure, but he works hard and they pay him well. And he still travels all over the world: just in conversation he mentioned Brazil, the Phillipines, Morocco, Thailand, Laos, even China. I don't know where he hasn't been! He said he has already taken his wife to eight countries in one year.
Paula, his wife, is going to school full-time for IT stuff, and they sound honeymoon-happy.
The most amazing thing is Paul's faith. He reminds me of his namesake, St. Paul, quite a bit. From what I can tell in his letters, St. Paul was completely consumed with his need to spread the gospel. Like the apostle, Paul believes he is on a mission, and he's talked about Jesus and taken bibles places you are not supposed to take them; he's had the bus he was on pulled over and every single person searched on the bus except for Paul who had a bible in his back pocket: had he been caught he would have been arrested or worse. It's astonishing really. Both his sisters have become Christians and he is witnessing to his father who is dying because he doesn't 'want him to go to hell.' I told him the story of my own conversion, and he was genuinely moved.
Is he still the old Paul I knew in college and high school? Not really. Some things are the same, but his vision for Christ has changed him in many ways. He's 41 now, and I'm glad his life has come together, his depression passed. And all that intensity (and Paul is about the only person I've met who was even more intense than me) and genuine need for attention from his younger days, or much of it, has been channeled into about the most constructive thing it could be channeled into.
I wonder if it will be like this and much more than this, talking to those we knew on earth in the next life.
It's quite a story all in all.
So that's Grasshopper now. Apparently he will have some kind of webcast radio show on the bible in the near future, and when I hear of that, I'll post the link.
God really does hear those who reach out to him; he really will not break the bruised reed which seeks him. Ask Paul. He'll tell you. Me, I'm still shaking my head, astonished.
t
And you know what, Paul is doing well. Remarkably well. He does live in Japan and was married last summer to a Japanese woman. He teaches English (ESL really) at a private college in Japan. He tells me it's impossible for foreigners to get tenure, but he works hard and they pay him well. And he still travels all over the world: just in conversation he mentioned Brazil, the Phillipines, Morocco, Thailand, Laos, even China. I don't know where he hasn't been! He said he has already taken his wife to eight countries in one year.
Paula, his wife, is going to school full-time for IT stuff, and they sound honeymoon-happy.
The most amazing thing is Paul's faith. He reminds me of his namesake, St. Paul, quite a bit. From what I can tell in his letters, St. Paul was completely consumed with his need to spread the gospel. Like the apostle, Paul believes he is on a mission, and he's talked about Jesus and taken bibles places you are not supposed to take them; he's had the bus he was on pulled over and every single person searched on the bus except for Paul who had a bible in his back pocket: had he been caught he would have been arrested or worse. It's astonishing really. Both his sisters have become Christians and he is witnessing to his father who is dying because he doesn't 'want him to go to hell.' I told him the story of my own conversion, and he was genuinely moved.
Is he still the old Paul I knew in college and high school? Not really. Some things are the same, but his vision for Christ has changed him in many ways. He's 41 now, and I'm glad his life has come together, his depression passed. And all that intensity (and Paul is about the only person I've met who was even more intense than me) and genuine need for attention from his younger days, or much of it, has been channeled into about the most constructive thing it could be channeled into.
I wonder if it will be like this and much more than this, talking to those we knew on earth in the next life.
It's quite a story all in all.
So that's Grasshopper now. Apparently he will have some kind of webcast radio show on the bible in the near future, and when I hear of that, I'll post the link.
God really does hear those who reach out to him; he really will not break the bruised reed which seeks him. Ask Paul. He'll tell you. Me, I'm still shaking my head, astonished.
t
Comments
a mutual friend from h.s. found me one of those high school reunion boards; and he gave my info to paul. It is wild.
t