Friends

Isaiah 1:18

I know you, you know me, but what does that make us? Facebook has changed the meaning of the word friend and we are all victims. Some people I know have more than five hundred friends of this sort and it makes me wonder what happened to the word acquaintance? You are probably aware that to combat this problem Facebook invented "Top Friends," an application I refused to accept. What does that mean anyway? 

I have always envied my wife's relationships with her friends. They have a sense of longing for each other that spans the many miles that separate them. Each year they plan two or three "Girl's Weekends" and try their best to stay connected. They remind me of something C.S. Lewis wrote: "Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods. Certainly to me it is the chief happiness of life. If I had to give a piece of advice to a young man about a place to live, I think I should say, 'sacrifice almost everything to live where you can be near your friends.' 

I like many men have difficulties in the area of friendship. Oh, I have friends, but I don't spend time with them. We don't call each other on the phone very often and I sometimes am far too satisfied with reports from conversations our wives will have with each other. I might try giving the excuse that having young children makes getting together difficult, but Amy's example nullifies that rationale. Perhaps it's my extreme tendency toward linear thinking that gets in the way. I live in a world that's easy to get lost in. 

What I am looking for can best be summed up by the words of Isaiah 1:18.  In it the LORD says, "Come now, let us reason together." To that I say, "YES, PLEASE!"

There is hope. Within the past week I've had some great conversations (and by that I mean that my thinking has been challenged on subjects that interest me). One was with my mom. She knows me so well. She asked, "Jason, what five books are you reading right now?" My heart leaped, and I could have fallen over. It wasn't surprising because she asked me, it was because anyone asked me at all. The only people who have asked me similar questions are dead and gone. But, I know they were not the only ones of their kind.

Come now, let us reason together.