Friends

Our last few days have been filled with trauma and drama…..

Amid it all there has come a peace beyond reason…..

Paul called it the “peace the passes all understanding”…

Anyway, amid our personal grief we have made a discovery….

Well a discovery on one level…

Rediscovery on another….

Friends…..

You know, those things you like til you don’t like them and then decide to like them anyway….

Oh, you do know…..

Friends are indeed one of the truest assets of life….

Take for instance….

The twins…

Business guys from town who came to our table at Luby’s yesterday and one knelt each side of Tracie and just cried with us…..

The bible school friend that time has separated us from who called and said she was on the way….

She arrived and hijacked out house and habits….

Even collecting our cell phones during dinner….

Then saw I needed a preacher for a service so she called her husband and told him to get down by church time Sunday night and don’t be late…..

The friend who slipped me a fist full of twenties…..

The couple who spent time over the weekend here just hanging out…..

The friends arriving for lunch and fellowship tomorrow from hours away who are just driving in for lunch and then going home….

The list is too numerous to chronicle here….

The rediscovery of such friends has been priceless…..

The many online friends who have attached themselves to us and become more than just an avatar and username…..

One particular friend has become extremely close…..

A few days ago we barely knew them, but in now they are trusted and loved…..

The kind of friend we didn’t know we had but indeed mutual respect and love was offered, accepted and now treasured…..

The kind of friends that might be so different but so the same as we are…..

Relationships sparked by tragedy….

Friendships rekindled by broken hearts…..

However the facts of life are what they are….

Discovery goes two ways and amid the new and rekindled was also the absent and silent….

But that’s OK too…..

God knows just who to put in our lives for the moment….

God knows…

He knows just who we need….

He knows just what we need…..

Tomorrow afternoon after our friends leave we drive a few hours to spend the night with other friends…..

We all need such relationships….

We are not islands that dwell all by our lonesome….

We need each other…..

We need others….

Like it or not….

You need me…..

And my need for you is immeasurable…..

Never take such for granted….

Never be the taker in the relationship…..

Invest yourself into that friend…..

If you see someone who has become an island person….

Take a cruise up to the weed infested dock…..

Take someone with you….

Disembark on that island….

And love…..

Love that island person…..

Lure that island person over to your boat….

Or set up a tent next to his….

Regardless….

Love that person…..

He will become a friend that will forever be grateful for the discovery and rediscovery of you…

Get them off that isolated island…

Last Tuesday I arrived at the Y before daylight and spoke to the guy getting out of the truck next to me….

We walked in together with me trying to figure out if I knew him….

I was way too cool to ask…..

Thirty minutes later I climbed off the elliptical machine and discovered….

Maybe I should say rediscovered a friend….

My fellow walker inner a bit earlier….

Turns our he was a friend and associate from twenty years back…..

Smiles, hugs, tears, and I shared our loss of Annaleigh…..

He shared his loss of his son five years ago….

Phone calls, missed appointments but by Friday we had squeezed in a Denny’s breakfast and a rekindled friendship……

He is supposed to attend CUPC Sunday!!!

Build that bridge…..

Lure that island person away from his isolation…..

Change his world…..

And yours too……

rks