Cherish True Friendship
"A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." -- Proverbs 18:24
What is a friend? Who is a friend? Many of us know a great many people. We know people at church and at work. We know neighbors and old classmates. We know people at the supermarket and our favorite restaurant. We know a lot of people.
Some of these people we call friends. "My friend from work," we say. Or "I got together with a bunch of my church friends," we tell our neighbor. They are friends of one sort, I suppose. We see them frequently. We have things in common. We laugh and talk and share. Or at least we do until something changes. We move to another church or job or neighborhood. Our interests carry us in a different direction. And those "friends" are just baggage that got left behind.
Sounds cruel, doesn't it? I don't mean it to be. It's just that sometimes I think we use the world friend a little loosely. We refer to people we know as friends whether we truly think of them in that way or not. Then something happens and it kind of sorts everything out for us.
If a person is truly a friend, a different job won't change that. Getting together might be a little more challenging but it still will happen. Same with a different church or neighborhood. Friends make time for each other. Acquaintances just drift apart. They may still like each other but they don't spend time together.
The same is true for wealth and poverty. In Provers 19:4, Solomon tells us, "Wealth brings many friends, but a poor man's friend deserts him." Yeah, you want to see "friends" come out of the woodwork? Have a windfall of cash. People will emerge from everywhere to see if they can get a piece of your good fortune. On the other side, want to see "friends" depart quickly? Experience a job loss or other economic disaster. Most won't even know your name, much less your phone number.
Friends are people who are there no matter what. You know that. There are some people you would drop everything for, give any amount to help, would stand by in good and bad times. Those people are friends. It doesn't make the others less enjoyable. They're fun to be around and have around. The trouble comes when we confuse the two. We spend so much time with the shallow folks who inhabit our lives, that we don't nurture the people who are close to our hearts.
Friends are awesome people to have around. Cherish them. Make time for them. Hold them close and be the best friend you can be to them. They are precious gifts from God. Don't ever, ever take them for granted.
No comments:
Post a Comment