The Act of Friendship
This last couple
of months in our lives has been a “whirlwind” of activity. It all started before traveling to Israel and
then just kept staying busy. I arrived
home from my last trip (Dallas and then Tulsa) this morning about 1 am and in
bed around 2. The first part of the trip
to Dallas was an interesting and a pretty good time but the really amazing part
of this trip happened on my trip to Tulsa.
I have only been
to Oklahoma once before this trip and I
was excited, thrilled and expectant about this trip and what was going to happen. This trip was not to disappoint me, and in
the process I learned a very valuable lesson about friendship, family and
intimacy. Friendship is defined as a
“relationship of mutual affection between two or more people, that is characterized
with sympathy, empathy, honesty, altruism, understanding and compassion.” Intimacy is defined pretty much the same and
then there is family that includes all of the above. All the same characteristics in each of those
three simple words. So are the three
words interchangeable, yes and this is the lesson I learned.
I have always and
(right or wrong) have taught my children that when you tell someone you are a
friend, it is an “all or nothing” relationship.
You are there to share with them in all aspects, the good, the bad and
the sometimes the ugly. But I never
realized the intimacy that comes with friendship. Please understand I have walked many roads
with friends but to be honored and blessed to walk in one of the most heartbreaking
situations has taught me the Biblical principle of Friendship.
Jesus in his three
years of ministry surrounded himself with twelve special men that he called
disciples, but they were so much more than that. We have learned that there were a group of at
least a 100 that followed Jesus and were taught by him. Many theologians called this group Jesus
disciples also. But the twelve were
different, they were his friends. They
were the ones that when he needed quiet and needed to be surrounded by support,
they were the ones he called. When he
needed rest, they were the ones that protected him. In our modern terms, we would say they had
his back. And with the exception of one,
they did. Their example was exactly what
the definition of friendship is. They
were the ones that he brought to the Garden when he knew his time was coming to
end. They were the ones that he was
willing to cry in front of and in fact he wanted to be able to show his love
and heartbreak in front of. They were
his friends that he shared with them the most intimate aspects of himself
with.
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