Friends are a Gamble

If you are about my age you may remember a song by Michael W. Smith called "Friends".

As a new Christian in my late teens just getting into gospel music, I really liked the song because it had aspects of Christianity and real life heartache.  I think the heartache part hit me the most, cause it was sort of a happy/sad song.  It was about people staying connected even though they may be apart, the common thread between them being God.

The lyric is "Friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them..."  Those words meant a lot to me because at one point I went through breaking up with a girl who was also a Christian, and having to deal with still going to the same school and having the same social circle.

How do you handle that?  If we are all Christians we should all be able to move on with our lives right?  No.  It was super awkward and I searched for a way to make sense of it through the song.  (I even read the lyrics over the school PA, that's another story...)

Being a teenager in the 80's you didn't have things like Facebook to be able to keep relationships going even when you got separated from your buddies.  If you were fairly literate, you could write letters, or if you had no knack for paper and pen, you could just pick up the phone and call, but even then, things were never the same.

When you made a friend there was always a chance that friend could move away.  My best buddy moved away after grade 9 and I was sad.  We were pretty inseparable.  We would do crazy things like shoot each other with pellet guns by the railroad tracks!  I miss those days, but not the bruises!

My point is this, getting and having friends is a risk.

You have no guarantees that they will always be around.  You don't know if they will let you down when you need them most.  You don't know if they will tell you what you need to hear when you need to hear it.  It's always a risk.

But with the biggest risks come the biggest rewards.

I saw an internet hoax recently where members of Facebook were warned to not "friend" someone named Jayden K. Smith.  The threat was that "Jayden" would hack your information and do terrible things with it!

First of all, I'm pretty sure that can't happen through Facebook.  The worst someone could do would be to bother you with constant requests to play games!

Secondly, it got me thinking about real world friends.  What if the Facebook scenario played out in real life?

What if you wanted to make friends and you couldn't because there was a rumor going around that you were a thief and will steal from anyone you get close to?  What if you were the subject of a campaign to tell the whole world wide web about how bad you are?  What could you do?

It would be tough to find a friend in that atmosphere!

Think about this for a second.  In the bible, Jesus picked out 12 guys to be his "learners".  The old school name is disciples.  After 3 years with them He said in John 15:15 (That's easy to remember!) that He now called them friends.

It's interesting because He knew that every one of them would turn their back on Him when He was at His worst moment!  He even told them it would happen!

Jesus never thought it wasn't worth the risk.  He believed in friendship.

I want to be a better friend.

I think of the people that I have encountered and how they were good friends and I wasn't.

I think about how even now there are friends I have now that I can't seem to talk to about things I should.

I think of people I wish I could be friends with, but their personality forbids it!  They are best left alone.

Relationships can be challenge, but I think ultimately they are worth it.