A Dangerously Good Friend
Tonight a friend and I spoke on the phone. After sharing our lives and thinking things through for nearly two hours, I realized what a gift it is to have deep friendships.
It is the people we are afraid to talk to because we know they will lovingly draw us out, the people who are trustworthy when no one else is, and the people who are amazingly beautiful inside that we need to open our hearts to. We need to make sure Christ is where we find satisfaction when we go into community or seek others out and not in friendships and relationships themselves. At the same time, we must enjoy and make the most of the fact that God created us for community.
It is a decision to make—choosing deep friendships—but one that will serve you well. There will always be different purposes behind and kinds of friendships. Recognizing this is good, but reader, I beg of you don't miss out on this kind. Seek a very small number of dangerously good friendships with the people God has place in your life to cultivate growth in you and to receive from. Find ways to give to those people as well, but not out of obligation, rather out of the love of who that person is.
This is the start of community--the church. If loving God and accepting his love is a frightfully good choice, wouldn't it make sense that loving one another and accepting one another's love would be just as hard?
As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
Mark 12:28-31
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.
Hebrews 10:25
It is the people we are afraid to talk to because we know they will lovingly draw us out, the people who are trustworthy when no one else is, and the people who are amazingly beautiful inside that we need to open our hearts to. We need to make sure Christ is where we find satisfaction when we go into community or seek others out and not in friendships and relationships themselves. At the same time, we must enjoy and make the most of the fact that God created us for community.
It is a decision to make—choosing deep friendships—but one that will serve you well. There will always be different purposes behind and kinds of friendships. Recognizing this is good, but reader, I beg of you don't miss out on this kind. Seek a very small number of dangerously good friendships with the people God has place in your life to cultivate growth in you and to receive from. Find ways to give to those people as well, but not out of obligation, rather out of the love of who that person is.
This is the start of community--the church. If loving God and accepting his love is a frightfully good choice, wouldn't it make sense that loving one another and accepting one another's love would be just as hard?
As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
Mark 12:28-31
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.
Hebrews 10:25
posted by MostHighsBeloved @ 1:59 PM
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