RAYN Flores San Nicolas in his selfless act of love and like his namesake brought refreshing life to a dry and thirsty land. How do you measure a man’s life? By his years? The kind of education he acquired? Career success and his possessions? Or do you measure it by the legacy that he leaves behind to an increasingly hurting world?

In the last 14 years of our life on this earth we have seen enough to drive men mad. Terrorism, war, murder, political corruption and the extreme self-obsession of the rich and famous. Guam has had her share of disgrace that has weighed our collective hearts into abysmal depths. Especially disturbing is an epidemic of extreme selfishness manifested in the form of family dysfunction and perverted criminal behavior. As Attorney General Lenny Rapadas decried in a report earlier this month, sex abuse crimes are at horrific levels on Guam, not to mention drug abuse, violence and bullying. Guam is on the same selfish path as so many of our nation’s youth and families.

Behind these manifestations is a culture of pleasure and self-obsession pushed by a large variety of bottom-line big businesses that are celebrated by the media and craved for by the masses. How is it that reality shows that portray the life and times of dysfunctional and sex-crazed families and their lovers are off the charts while wholesome books filled with power, meaning and value lie unread and the morals of real superheroes are barely known. If they are mentioned they’re only given a perfunctory "like" on our favorite social network with no ensuing conversation? Many can tell us all the members of Keeping up with the Kardashians and Jersey Shore, but they don’t know the names of the four gospels.

But then along comes a light to the world.

A light that reminds us of the awesome and selfless human spirit created in the image of Jesus Christ. In a world where so many people are out for themselves, which in turn leaves a trail of disaster, broken hearts, used bodies and despair, along comes a Rayn Flores San Nicolas who defied the inner cry of the self-preserving drive of human nature and without hesitation and against orders to take care of himself, plunged into the treacherous waters off Ritidian and like Jesus, gave his life so that others may live. Part of this had to be because his parents Glenn and Monica San Nicolas taught him well and role modeled the love of Jesus Christ. It also came about because of Rayn’s own deep abiding personal faith in His savior. He fleshed out John 15:13 which says: “Greater love hath no man, than he who lays down his life for his friends.”

Deuteronomy 28:12 says the Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.

Certainly the Lord has poured out his rain on this island and we are blessed by it. I pray that a new generation of men and women on this island will turn less to the role models of seduction and cool, of money and lust for power, and will turn their hearts to the role models of people like Rayn Flores San Nicolas. If we do, then his beautiful life of only 14 years will live on forever and ever. Amen.

Rev. Steven Castro McManus,
Pastor, Christian Life Center
Guam