Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Well worn slippers

Lately I’ve been getting phone calls from old friends that I haven’t spoken to in quite a while. The conversations pick up right where we left off, as if we’d been together the day before. Good friends are like well worn slippers: they fit really comfortably and make you feel warm and fuzzy inside (okay maybe I exaggerate slightly). As I’ve been thinking about old times and good friends, I’ve been corresponding via e-mail with a really dear friend of mine in Colorado Springs. We’ve been catching up on one another’s lives and families and reminiscing about old times.

Over the last few years we sort of drifted apart, but as we’ve been corresponding, I’m reminded of all the fun stuff we used to do together. The reason I play golf is because of him! We’ve climbed to the top of Mt. Sinai together, swum in the Dead Sea together, played golf in Nigeria together, hung out in London together… wow! We’ve cried together, laughed together, yelled at each other, comforted each other…. I realized how much I miss my good friend because of all that we’ve been through together. There’s something about friendships that convey a powerful, deep and intimate sense of relationship. The Scriptures tell us that “There’s a friend who is closer to you than a brother.” (Proverbs 18: 24)

Jesus, speaking to His disciples declared, “I no longer call you servants… but I call you friends…” (John 15: 15) Clearly, at some point in their relationship a transition occurred that strengthened their bond and made them more His friends than His servants or understudy’s. So, as I’ve thought about all my old friends that I’ve reconnected with, it brought to mind a definition of friendship I once heard that truly resonated with me: A friend is one who has eaten a bowl of salt with you grain by grain. That elicits such a powerful word picture for me.
What’s your favorite definition of a friend?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

To me, a friend is someone who never judges me, who sees through me and still loves me, who encourages me to be authentic. A friend is someone whose love for me will never change. A friend is someone I can be totally honest with, someone I can love the way I love. As you said, it's someone who, regardless of how often you see them, it's as if you saw them yesterday ... picking up where you left off. A friend is like another part of your body that you just can't be without, in spirit.

Me said...

Loyal through it all. Not afraid to call my "stuff" for what it truly is and is still there.

Anonymous said...

Ah! That would be a "ROOT" friend I think.

Joseph said...

Thanks Hope, Joey and Anon for your comments and definitions of friendship. The real blessing is when one has friends that fit these definitions.