Over the past month or so I really have been focusing on friendship and how this bond has been ever so present in my life, all my life. The whole thought of friendship is a strange one, a group of people, often total strangers that decide to start conversing then a bond develops. It maybe a surface-y type friend that you call when you need to be human or that friendship that runs so deep that you can almost think for that person.
I have experienced both and so much more in between. I look back on the years and am honestly embarrassed about how I approached my earliest friendships. One friend I called everyday, at the same time after school. Really? Embarrassing, feeling that our friendship would not hold if there wasn't a daily connection. In high school the act of trying to keep up to just fit in became exhausting but a lot of fun. This group of friends held Jesus as a standard in their lives and we did so much together, road trips, band shows and late night hang outs and eventually youth group. Then there was a foolish need to try another group, that other set of friends whom I drew especially close to chose drugs and alcohol over anything. That was my first "break up" after many nights of praying and hearing that I didn't want to head down that road at all. I had hopes and dreams that would be dashed if my life became nothing but that style.
I didn't trust for a long time after then. Why would I? God was my friend during the time I felt like I couldn't trust. Having learned so much over that time of solidarity the Lord blessed me with the group of close bonds that I now experience. It is refreshing to not have to change, hide or call every day to know that they have my back. During this season my heart has been healed and then I finally led a Bible Study on Friendship and the wound was healed completely. Maturity has a lot do with it but so does learning to trust again. Enjoy friendships today, laugh and take a chance in another person. God never intended us to walk any road alone!
