Friends...

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the true meaning of friends. It's a subject that has been on my mind and heart for a while now. Life hands us lots of ups and downs and it seems that people will come and go out of your life at various seasons or stages in your life. Reuniting online through Facebook lately with old acquaintances and friends from junior high school and high school has been such fun in recent months for me! It's as if 17 or more years having passed has seemingly erased a lot of the old grudges, feelings, intentions, and drama from those good ole' days...well, at least the negative feelings anyway! I love being able to reconnect to see where everybody has ended up so far and to be honest, there have been many pleasant surprises! God has certainly been working mightily in many of my old classmates' lives through the years and it is a true delight for me to catch a glimpse of who they are now, albeit online only.

This blog entry is just a way for me to express some of my thoughts about friends and friendships. There have been some situations lately with other people who I know and who I guess I had classified as friends. But, when I go through my mental checklist of what demonstrates true friendship to me, it seems that perhaps, some of these people aren't truly a friend to me. It has been hurtful for me to realize that although I may have considered some of them my friends, they apparently have not felt the same way about me. Or, at least their actions, or lack thereof, have conveyed that message to me. Life presents us all with many challenges, for sure. And I will be one of the first to admit that I am not the best at expressing my gratitude and love I have for the friends in my life on a frequent basis. When the world is made up of so many people with so many different types of personalities and coming from so many kinds of backgrounds and experiences in their own lives, it's easy to see why miscommunication and friendship styles can result in conflicts. But, I truly wish that it was easier for some people to be willing to give of themselves in friendships to others and to not be too afraid of being vulnerable by just being yourself to another person. It's risky, I know, to express your true feelings and thoughts to someone else. It also takes effort and work to create and maintain a friendship that goes beyond the typical, "Hello. How are you doing?" courtesy exchanges.

My LIFE group at church has been working on a study recently about Authentic Relationships. I think it is a great idea for people to discuss and think about creating more authentic relationships in their own lives. The key element I think is the fact that it really is something you have to do yourself. You can't expect a friendship to grow or flourish when only one party is making most, if not all, of the efforts. After all, think about the fact that God is the one who initially seeks us out in order to draw us into a relationship with Him! He initiates the act of establishing an authentic relationship, or a friendship with us. Can you imagine if God never took that first step in any of our lives? Where would we all be? Some of us may very well have ended up stumbling upon Him at some point, just out of curiosity. But, isn't it comforting to know that God is the one who took the first steps to begin a lifelong journey with us? We didn't have to do anything at first. In order for our walk with the Lord to even progress at all from that beginning, we had to step out in faith and make the effort to be vulnerable to Him...isn't that true? Fortunately, even when we seem to lose interest in keeping the lines of communication and relationship open with God, He still waits patiently for us. In fact, He will NEVER leave us! And thank Heaven He doesn't hold grudges, too! But, human friendships aren't quite so foolproof. When one party seemingly ceases to make any effort to keep the friendship going, the relationship can practically wither away and die. It's a sad truth that probably happens more often than we realize. So, I challenge you, my silent blogreaders (LOL), to examine your friendships in your own life currently. If you are feeling like some of your relationships aren't quite all that they could be or if you are wishing that you had more authentic, trusting and faithful relationships, why not step out in faith with a vulnerable heart and take that first step to creating and maintaining a true friendship? I think it's safe to assume that you won't be sorry! It's a win-win situation for everyone! The old saying, "To have a friend, you have to be a friend", comes to mind.