Have you ever had a friend in whom you could trust with your deepest of secrets? Have you ever had a friend that you could trust to keep you accountable in your walk and help you grow closer to Christ? Have you ever had a friend that just gets you and in whom you can truly be yourself? Have you ever had a friend in whom you knew that even if you were a world a part your friendship would remain?
I don't know about you but I spent 25 years of my life believing that a friend like this didn't exist. As a preacher's kid, I grew up in a family that never lived in the same place longer than 7 years. One thing that became incredibly clear to me in all those years of being transient was that once you left, most of your "good" friends would no longer write or keep up with you. It seems to me that for the most part we live in a world that enjoys friendships of convenience. Most people do not want to go through the struggle of having to maintain contact through messaging, email, phone calls, and scheduled get togethers. It seems most people choose to love the people in whom are close and convenient.
Well about 4 years ago I met a guy who became the brother I never had. God completely brought us together and blessed our friendship. He developed in us a friendship that will be able to stand the test of time. We both love to hang out and do adventures, which includes paintball, kayaking, biking, hiking, and much more. We both love Jesus and want our lives to reflect our passion for Him. We both are married and want to be the best husbands we can possibly be. We also both have a passion for ministry and have partnered together many times to reach people for Jesus. The Lord has truly blessed our friendship.
Now don't get me wrong, we have definitely had our disagreements and our friendship hasn't always been easy but the Lord has been gracious and helped us to grow closer through our struggles. It has been amazing how much both of us have grown in our walks with Christ and half of our friendship has been with us being continents apart. I personally believe that there are certain people that the Lord places in your life that will bless you more than any other person can. My wife and my best friend are two of those people and I am incredibly happy to have them in my life.
My friend is in the country for a couple weeks on a furlough to pickup visas and my wife and I had the opportunity to hang out with him and his family today. I made sure to pack up both my bike and my kayak so that we could have an afternoon jam packed with adventure and heart connections related to who we are as men of Christ. We had a wonderful afternoon kayaking on a creek near my friend's house and even had the pleasure of having a walnut war in our kayaks. We both shared how the Lord is working in our lives and discussed struggles we have had in our walks. It was wonderful.
I write all of this as an example of the importance of a close same sex friend and accountability partner to help you develop and grow your walk. I believe this is the example that Jesus was portraying in the 12 disciples. You also see a friendship like this in Jonathan and David in the Old Testament. Paul and his many companions also reflected similar friendships. These men experienced everything together whether joys or sorrows and through their experiences they became close and grew in their maturity as followers of Christ. It is so important to have someone in your life in whom you know you could say anything to and not feel judged. It is important to know that you are loved by someone so much that they are willing to ask you the hard questions that help you have a deeper walk.
If you do not have anyone in your life that resembles this picture, I highly recommend you pray that the Lord would bring someone like this into your life. It may take a while but I know that the Lord has someone like this for each person. For some, you may already know who this person is in your life and if so, I suggest you praise God for knowing who they are. For some, you may feel like I once did and not believe a person like this exist. My advice is to be faithful and trust that the Lord intends for you to be able to share a friendship like this, that will help you grow leaps and bounds in your walk. Our God is eternally and completely faithful, as I have said in many of my other blogs. Trust in Him and he will bring someone like this into your life at the time you most need them.
Blessings,
Greg
No comments:
Post a Comment