The Happiest Man on Earth

Rodney and I are in Puerto Rico right now (which everyone knows RIGHT NOW, but won't if they ever look back to read this). We flew in last night and walked around the beach some. But we woke up this morning and both ran to the hotel window with Christmas morning passion to see the ocean in daylight.

We got ready and strolled down to breakfast and watched waves lick the sand while we casually ate our bagels and sipped Puerto Rican coffee.

At that point in the morning, neither of us felt ambitious enough to swim or do the touristy things we're looking forward to doing, but we still wanted to drink in some warm ocean air. So we decided to bask on the front steps of our hotel. He with his laptop, and me with my journal. We spent nearly 2 hours sitting on those steps.

Parking around San Juan is pretty sparse, so this hotel utilizes valet parking. The driver stands outside the building to help intercept patrons as they arrive. Since he was waiting out front, and we were sitting out front, our 2 hours of leisure activities were interspersed with conversation with him.

His English was really quite good, and he had one of the best, most optimistic attitudes I've ever encountered. He is the self-proclaimed "happiest man on earth." He said someone else could be as happy as him, but not happier.

He is in love with God and is excited to talk about it. He goes to ghettos and the jail and to where the drug dealers and prostitutes hang out to tell them about Jesus and about how there's a better life to be had. His voice broke at one point when describing how these people are caught and stuck and can't see their way out.

He told us that God knew what He was doing putting him in Puerto Rico. He's lived here his whole 56 years and loves the ocean and the sky. He told me that I need to write this analogy down and tell my kids:

The ocean is like God's love. It's vast and deep. Like His love, you can see where the ocean starts, but not where it ends. And like the waves effortlessly and constantly come into shore, His love is coming at us continually. We can't control it or add to it.

Rodney also pointed out that if you saw a guy carrying water from a lake to the ocean or pouring in the purest bottled water because he thought he could improve the ocean, you'd say he was crazy.

The general concept of that analogy isn't new to me. But it's something that he knows. Not just an idea. He has breathed it and truly known it throughout his life.

His passion shames me. He didn't know anything about us or our "religious" background, yet he unapologetically shared his love for the highly controversial God that he worshiped. He wasn't pushy or even bold, necessarily. He was as much like a giddy child as I imagine God would want us to be about Him.

He thanked God for crossing our paths and told us he was blessed to be talking with us. I told him he had that backwards :)