The Back Porch

I’ve been thinking a lot about friends lately. I can’t really be sure why, as my mind it seems has a mind of its own. But I’ve been thinking much about how fortunate I am to have the friends that I do.

Looking back on the past year, I’ve gone through so much crap and trials and stress that it borders on ridiculous. I very frequently found myself asking where God was, or why He wasn’t helping me.

The answer, of course, was in the people I asked. God was right there.

I don’t mean to jump onto a string of blasphemy, so first of all I’d like to point out that my friends themselves aren’t God. But the simple truth is that God was present in those friends. When I wanted God’s comfort, he comforted me with friends. When I wanted God’s company or God’s advice, he gave me those things in the form of the people around me. And frankly, if I didn’t have that, I would be in a much worse way right now.

This issue of course isn’t so straightforward as to be a one-way street. If my friend is how God shows Himself to me, then I suppose that means I’m supposed to be showing God to my friend too, right?

Sometimes this is a really easy issue to grasp. All you have to do is be a friend. Most people have a pretty basic understanding of that. But it’s the times we don’t want to do it that it is the most important. When we just had a long day at work and really want to nap instead, or we’re spending time for ourselves, or in a “quiet time”. It is then that you need most to be there for people, and consequently, when it is most difficult, it seems.

I was talking to one of my most trusted friends just a few days ago, and she was telling me that she felt like she wasn’t a good friend at all, citing that she was frequently busy and overwhelmed with things to be done, often unable to come over when I was having people over, or the sort. And I said to her, “Yeah, you’re busy and you have far too many things going on for any one person. You have a small nation of people constantly competing for your attention. But you have always been there for me when I needed you most, whether by coincidence or divine appointment. I can’t be sure, but you have always been there when I hurt most, and thus have been the truest friend.”

This is just one facet of the way Christ intended His church to be. So often we talk about relying on God to provide all of our needs, which is well and good, but in that we sometimes cause it to be very abstract. In my life the biggest way I’ve seen God provide for me was by the simple generosity and friendship of His people. My friends.

Keep it real, folks.
Peter