Friends

Friendships

    Sometimes we show love to a friend by saying an encouraging word. 
    As I write about friends a friend sent me a message about crutches:
“There is a time and place for crutches in our lives.  When we have been injured  and we need support to begin on the path to recovery there is no shame in using crutches.   Crutches may fit the moment but In most cases they are to be temporary not permanent.
    Some people get so used to some kind of daily support that it takes a good friend who comes along and takes away the crutches.  With a word or an action the friend sends a clear message that it is time to walk without the crutches. Good friends don’t let crutches become permanent when they do not need to be.”
    Jesus talked about friends and he started with a commandment that we love one another. Then He emphasized this by saying, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.  John15:15-17 
    Another friend of mine is an ultra runner. He runs races of 100 miles. Sometimes a pacer runs with the runner to encourage them along the way. People ask him why he runs and he starts by quoting what King David said long ago, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  Psalm 139:14
    People ask me why I serve as a crew chief for him. I do it because he is a friend. He is older than I am and I told him long ago as long as he wants to run I will help him. I will manage the crew and the pacers that support him. In a few days we will go to Death Valley in California for the second time in three years to run the BADWATER 135 mile ultramarathon from the lowest point in the USA to Whitney Portal, high in the mountains.  
    You might say we are a crutch, however we are a temporary support to a friend who needs us for a short while.  And he has a ready answer when someone asks him why he does what he does. We all need a ready answer that is Biblically based when we are asked why we do what we do. He encourages his crew by sharing with us and everyone around him how he lives his life in context to praising God. 
    Do you do this? I have a favorite verse or two, do you? Why not find a verse or two today that will help you explain how and why you live the way you do.

---