Don,
My sweet, friend! You must know how very much I love you! I hate that you’re hurting so badly! I’ll be home soon. I preached this weekend on James 2:14-26. Before I started, I asked everyone in the service to pray for me. The reason being that my heart was so heavy over your condition. I asked them to pray for strength to preach because I was so weak emotionally and mentally, almost physically sick, because of the grief in my heart concerning you! I hate that you are going thru this, Don! I also hate that I’m not there with you right now. I’ll be home very soon. I know you know this, but I’m coming home as soon as I possibly could have and that I’ve wanted to be by your side this entire time. I also told the congregation that you’ve been the single most significant man in my life! No bullshit!
Don, you’ve made such an impact on me. Meeting you changed the trajectory of my life for the better! I met you at the worst time of my life. I was losing faith and at my lowest. Then, I walked into that DTS room and met you. It was in that Starbucks, at our first coffee, that I knew we’d be friends for life! I didn’t know, however, just how deeply God would use you and your experiences to shape and mold me.
I look back and see a different person then. The Brit of today is far more compassionate, aware, mature, and wise. Of course God is the ultimate author of those things, but He used you, Don, to bring about all that growth!!! The crazy thing is that I’m only one of hundreds of people’s lives that have been changed, Don!!! Most men and women hope to influence and mentor 1 or 2 people in their lives, most likely their children. You've done this with countless persons, Don! From the early days of caring for your friends that were dying of AIDS and being a community leader at a time when OakLawn needed solidarity and unity to the tremendous change God has exacted through you in the Evangelical Christian Community in Dallas!
Think about it, Don! How in the world could you get pastors from the biggest churches in Dallas together with gay men in OakLawn??? It’s because you’re so special!!! Never before has this happened! And if Christians had been there in your neighborhood before, it wasn’t genuine and loving. God has used you to bring together two seemingly incompatible groups (at least as far as history has shown). Don, this is so significant! Your life hasn’t just counted, it has totally changed the attitudes, feelings, and most importantly the actions of hundreds of people, myself included!!!
Don, I’d like to ask a favor of you and Marion: I’d like a pair of your Chuck Taylor’s. If it’s okay with you both, I’d like to have a pair of them, preferably your rattiest pair (because Marion always said you looked like a homeless person in them and your torn up jeans J) to remind me always of the calling God revealed to me through you. I don’t ever think that I’ll be able to fill them, for they are much too large to fill, but I promise you that I’ll continue your legacy of love. I promise to walk as best I can in your footsteps, Don! I promise to fight for gays and lesbians! I promise to fight against bigoted Christians that don’t love well, just as I fought against those 2 Bible-college kids on the corner that fateful night! I promise that me and my friends won’t make the same mistakes that the previous generation did with the gay and lesbian community! And, I promise that your name will be honored for the rest of my life! There’s not a week that goes by here in Bali that I don’t mention you. You’ve redirected my life forever, and everyone that knows me knows who you are and how special you are to me!
In you, God provided me with the Father that I never had. I can’t express to you how deeply you’ve changed me with your love for me! You listened for hours and hours as I poured out my heart. I knew you cared because you kept pursuing me! The countless coffees and meals that you bought me made me feel so supported and loved. The clothes you gave me are some of my favorite in my closet! Don, God has used you to change me deeply. The walks we took in the hood made me feel safe. I loved those walks! Thank you for sharing your life with me! Thank you for loving me so well! I will never ever ever be the same!
These words don’t come close to expressing my affections for you, but today, 13 time zones away, they are all I have at my disposal: Don Dent, I love you with all of my heart and can’t thank God enough for blessing me with your love and friendship!
With all the love in my heart,
Brit
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