Real Life Enrichment -- Friendship
otch...@yahoo.com
"People who need other people are the luckiest people in the world." So says a popular song. Well, we all need other people. Some admit it. Others leave the impression of being self-sufficient. But we all need other people. Sure there are times when we need to be alone. But for most of the times of greatest happiness and meaning are shared moments, moments when we feel someone's heart beats with ours. Nothing is much worse than the empty feeling of "not having a friend in the world," and nothing much better than the joy of having a real friend.
The meaning of true friendship is hard to put into words, isn't it? It has meaning only when it comes to life in a real live person and in a real live relationship. A friend will accept me, all of me, as I am. He will challenge me, argue with me, and urge me to grow. And friendship is reciprocal. My friend feels the same freedom to come to me and pour out his feelings in complete trust.
There's an old definition of friendship which runs this way: "A friend is one to whom we may pour out the contents of our hearts, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away."
We see this clearly in Jesus, God's son. Look what he did! He became like us in order to befriend us. He knew we'd have trouble sharing our life with someone who seems so far away and so different from us. So he became like us. He experienced the same life cycle: birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, just like us. He got hungry, thirsty, tired, lonely, just like us. He faced the same temptations we face. He put himself in our shoes.
No wonder people found him approachable. Tax collectors, prostitutes, soldiers, religious leaders...they all confided in him. They saw a friend. He was even called a friend of sinners. Toward the end of his life, he said, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). And then he did just that--he laid down his life for us, all of us--poor, rich, educated, uneducated, all of us. It was God's way of saying to each of us, "I want to bridge the gap. I want reconciliation. I want you as a friend."
Friends make life worthwhile. Take good care of your I friendships--I sure wouldn't want to be without them. Would you? And I certainly want to maintain my relationship with the best friend of all--Jesus Christ.
You Think About It! ;)
Warmly — Until next time,
Kevin
Minister with the Oak Tree Church
Rochester, MN