Pastor Mike shared that at different times in our lives, our friendships will be different… We will meet friends that God brings along for a certain reason. “This friend was a God-send”.
Have you ever experienced this type of friendship or was there a time when God used you to be friend to someone else for a reason?
Another type of friendship is becoming friends for a season. Examples are school friends, friends in a certain city or neighborhood before you or they moved away, work related friendships… etc. You may come in contact with them again down the road but for some reason there is normally a separation and we move on.
Has this happened to you? What caused the separation?
The third type of friendship is those friendships that last a life time. This could be your spouse and/or another person that you remain in contact with continually. This type of friendship is a true treasure and from these friendships we learn commitment, loyalty and companionship.
Do you have a treasured lifelong friend? If so – share with us some stories about this person.
I’ll post some more questions later on this week – but I want to share a story about a friend that could fit in either the first type or second. When Linda and I got married I also started working for Duke Energy (At that time it was Duke Power). There was an older gentleman that I worked with and he was always kind and encouraging. There were also times he was also like a dad and telling me to work things out and stop complaining. About about three or four years later, Duke was reducing workforce and we were either going to be laid off or transferred. I was worried about being laid off. He knew I professed to at least be a Christian. One day, after listening to me sharing my concerns, he walked up to me and very quietly said… “Marty, I saw something on a bill board that you need to hear… It said – Do you pray – why worry? Do you worry – then why pray?”
This man retired and I was transferred to McGuire, but to this day I still remembered how God used him at that time in my life.
This sermon made me feel better about one of the most important friendships I’ve had in my life. I became friends with Katie when I was in college — she was my roommate in my freshman year. We both left that college after the first year, but stayed in close touch and visited each other often even though we lived in different states. Katie was the most influential and trustworthy friend I had during my 20′s. I told her everything and she supported me through tough times…break-ups, getting overstressed while I was working my way through grad school, etc. We were so close that I couldn’t possibly imagine a time when Katie wasn’t the center of my friendship life.
And then Katie met a guy and got married, and shortly afterwards I met Todd and got married. Suddenly we seemed so different. We had chosen very different men for our husbands. Katie was not interested in growing in her faith, but that became central in my life. This person who has seemed so necessary in my life became someone who was quite different from me and was leading a different life. I was sad to see the friendship dissolve. Now Katie and I are friends on Facebook who chat with each other about once every six months. Todd is my closest confidante now.
Mike’s sermon helped me to feel better about our friendship fading away. By giving definition to that type of friendship, he gave it value. Mike’s sermon made me feel blessed to have had this friendship for a season instead of sad that it faded away — I used to feel like I had failed because Katie didn’t turn out to be a close, lifelong friend. It helped me put a more positive spin on the fact that we aren’t as close anymore and feel like we still had a valuable friendship even though it changed over time.
I feel blessed to have meet a friend named Aaron in the 7th grade. Aaron is a lifelong friend, as well as I feel I was a God -Sent friend to him, let me explain. Through the years of jr high, and then on into high school we developed a close treasued freindship. After high school, I went to App State and Aaron went straight into the work field. During this time were seperated by distance but remained close, talking by, yes a land line telephone, I know this sound sounds weird now because hardly no one uses land line telephones to talk with freinds these days, it is text, facebook, or cell phones. But anyway, when I left App State and returned to the Charlotte area, our friendship keep growing with trust, loyalty, and sacrifice.
Then we both got married. The coversations which used to take place every other day, went to once a week, then once a month, and then every several months, to we lost contact. I would have to say my trust and loyalty in Aaron was still there. We just went seperate paths and developed seperate friendships though our spouses.
Then one night, close to seven years ago, on a November night, around 11PM. I got a phone call, this time on a cell phone, it was Aaron. Now here is the God-sent part of our friendship. I normally am not up at 11PM, nor do I answer the phone this late, but this night I was awake and did answer the phone. Aaron told me, he came home from work and his wife had moved herself out of the house, she had taking all the funiture except one bed, and clean out their checking and savings account, and left a note that she was no longer in love with him, and went on to say in the letter that she had found another man she was now in love with.
Wait a minute Aaron, you said what, she did what? That stuff doesn’t happen to people like us! I said who knows about this? His reply, no one. You mean to tell me that we have not spoke in several years, and you trust me, and have loyalty in me to call me first. I had to ask myself, what do I do, what do I say? I did not know what to say becasue I came from a family that my parents are still married, and to that point in my life I had not known anyone who has been through such a thing.
Well, this is what happened. Nichole and I got into the car that night and drove, to Aaron’s house at midnight, knocked on the door, and said, we are here for you-let us know what we can do. Well it turned out it was being a shoulder to lean on, an ear to listen, and someone to ask advise, even if I did not know the answer.
From that point on, our freindship has developed even further than that of pre-marriage. I feel blessed by God, to have a lifelong friend in Aaron.