Friendships Are For Keeping
One of the greatest gifts from God, whether we realize it or not, is some of the people He surrounds us with. More specifically, the friends which find their way into our hearts, there remaining for a long time or even till death. We all have such people in our lives. But are we that to others as well?
I never forget a book I read years ago, authored by a multi-millionaire. At one point he stated that his most valuable assets were not monetary in nature; they were, instead, the many friendships he had developed through the years. That was the Bank to which he returned continuously, not to deplete but, rather, to cultivate each of those major assets.
Psychologist Eugene Kennedy affirms that “true friendship is the only thing that can really bear people up in a world in which it is impossible to predict what will go wrong next.” In spite of all human imperfections, having friends and being a friend relates to one of the greatest privileges and blessings God makes available to all His human creatures.
In my travels to different parts of the world, I have found that the countries I have enjoyed the most are not necessarily those with majestic scenery, the most efficient public transportation system, or with the richest historical monuments. Rather, it is those nations where new, meaningful friendships were established and continue to be maintained. Most of them are discovered within the community of faith in those locations, but need not be limited only to church people.
The Bible has a lot to say about friendship, whether through concrete examples illustrative of its true nature, or via scriptural pronouncements which accentuate its importance in life. One which I remember since my childhood, when I first memorized it, is Proverbs 17:17: “A friend loves at all times…”
What we need to recognize continuously is that friendships, like any other human enterprise, require time and cultivation. They do not merely happen, all of a sudden. They usually are the result of hard work which may last months before reaching the desired level. It’s like a tender plant demanding our careful attention on a continuing basis. It is a developmental process requiring several stages through which it must travel. It also expects understanding concerning human nature, in the sense that people are different and will act and react differently in varied situations. Most importantly, perhaps, is that we become a friend to someone else not for what we can get out of that friendship but, rather, for what we can be and do for another. It’s only selfless friendships that shall endure!
A few years ago, before taking another trip to the Czech Republic, I wrote to someone in Prague who had become, and remains, one of my best friends anywhere in the world. I inquired from him what he might desire for me to take along from the U.S.A. as a gift for him. In his reply, he indicated that he desired no gift other than my visit; “you are the best gift,” he wrote to me.
Indeed, just as so many persons become a true gift to us through their friendship, may we also be the best possible gift to a few, as we befriend them by our own initiative, or simply respond to their expressed desire to have us as a friend to them.
December 7th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
always masterful my dear friend! a friend loves @ all times. this is what i have w/you, the highest of love, an unconditional one.
thank you for blessing us all with your art form of writing & teaching. you truly are an artisan!