Got Any Friends?

According to Webster, a friend is "a person whom one knows well and is fond of; intimate associate; close acquaintance...a person on the same side in a struggle; one who is not an enemy or foe; ally...a supporter or sympathizer."

I just finished typing that definition and had a thought that came out of nowhere in my blond brain. Who is Webster anyway? Why is his name on my dictionary, and yet, he's not listed as the author? In fact, I can't find his name anywhere. If you happen to know, please enlighten me.

Back to the topic at hand: friends! I love them, don't you? They come in all shapes, sizes, colors and internal variety. What is so fantabulous about this friend thing is that they don't have to be exactly like me to "like" me and for us to hit it off. I have a lot of different friends, on varying levels. I don't mean different in the sense that they are peculiar (although some come awfully close), but rather that we are diverse in character.

For example, I have a friend who calls herself a democrat (gasp), and I really, really like being with her. We don't have to agree on the same things to be friends. On the important things, like being a follower of Jesus, we do concur. We also enjoy being work out buddies when our schedules allow. With another great friend, I enjoy shopping, coffee and a lot of good-natured teasing. I have several friends that love "doing" lunch together. Many of us work together in our Roof-Crasher Bible Study, loving women to Jesus and encouraging them to go deeper in the Word. A couple of other friends have encouraged me in my leadership capabilities, seeing gifts in me that God could use. Still others laugh with me and cry with me. They've seen some of my uglies (like me without make-up) and continue to love me in spite of it. And, though they've never had the opportunity to bring me meals, I still love them.

Oddly as it sounds, I have another winsome friend who is meeting "bloggy" friends in another state for a little get away. Some are calling her crazy, and while she is that, I call her adventurous. And truth be told, I'm a tad jealous at her getting the opportunity to meet new friends because I'm convinced one can never have enough friends. Why it's just more occasions for lunches and laughing, for tears and triumphs, for shopping and sharing, for encouraging words spoken into our lives and excitement over our kids and husbands, for coffee and complaining about our kids and husbands! And, we can do all of it at the same time. That's what is so outrageous about girlfriends.

I have other friends that live in a far away state called Washington; pals which I only catch up with once a year when I visit my family. They are still close to me, near and dear to my heart even though our communication is limited. These are the ones who go through the mud with you. They've been there when tragedy hits; when the bottom drops out of your world. There are not enough words to convey what these bosom allies mean to someone like me, a person on the verge of breakdown, in a state of confusion, barely able to life my head up. Some of you have experienced this kind of friendship, the type the unites you together because of calamity.

These 5 friends carried me through one of the roughest eons (seems like it was) of my life. While my life as I knew it was falling apart, they held pity parties with me, became angry with me, cried tears with me, laughed with me and prayed with me. They, like the friends that carried their paralyzed mate to Jesus for healing, brought me on my stinky, smelly "divorce" mat to Jesus so that he could heal my wounds and my scars. While they, my compassionate friends, could not heal nor ease my pain, they knew the One who can heal all manners of sicknesses and diseases, the One who can bind up the broken hearted. While my sweet, caring buddies loved and cared for me in so many ways, they couldn't go home with me to a lonely house at night nor could they be at my beck and call whenever I felt depressed or sad. However, I do have a Friend who never slumbers nor sleeps; His presence is always with me. And, let me tell you, that when my life turned upside down, I became tight with this Friend.

I learned to trust like never before, to hang on like never before, to believe like never before. For a long time, He was my only confidante; you know, before everyone in the whole world knew all my dirty laundry. I clung to Christ like a magnet to the refrigerator. I had nothing and no one else. He became my Everything. During these two years, I learned that I could trust Him with absolutely everything...my kids, my present, my future. It's an interesting thing what these tornadoes out'ta nowhere can do to your life, IF you allow them to. WHEN you take them to Jesus, He can make something beautiful out of it. As I recently read in Lysa Terkeurst's blog, if the seed doesn't come out of it's nice little, safe packet to be placed into the ground and watered, it will never grow into what it was designed to be. So, when life happens to you, and it will, let God have his way, as with the potter and clay, so He can break and re-mold you into something beautiful He can use. One of the greatest lessons I learned about this most wonderful Friend is that He always wants the best for me. When life just doesn't seem fair and I don't understand why God might be allowing something to happen, I recall that no matter how things ultimately turn out, I can trust Him because He knows the big picture and knows better than I do what is good and perfect for me.

So, I love my God, my Friend much, much more than ever. Yet, I am completely convinced that God blesses me with girlfriends with whom I can share and do life with and more importantly, to encourage them to bring everything...their sorrows, their pain, their joys...to the One who is waiting for them, "able to do immeasurably more then all they can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within them" (Eph. 3:20).

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Ecclesiastes 4:9,10