Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday February 22, 2006

One of the joys of my life is the company of old friends. These friends are not necessarily my age, some are older and some are younger, but the friendship is welded as we often in different ways have 'been through it' over the years.

The particulars of my 'been through it' times are for the most part vastly different from the experience of my friends. To be honest I would not trade my pain for theirs, though some of my particular pain is more embarrassing at first thought.

I have observed that all of us over the course of our life will have the privilege and the pain of discovering just who our true friends are. This is one of the most helpful discoveries of a lifetime. When this core group of true friends it revealed, it frees you to be just the person God is making you to be.

The Lord assures us in Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." Whether we admit it or not that friend who comes to you in the time of real trouble is real. Usually. I say usually because some folks will come in the hope of picking spoil from any thing left on your bones. But for the most part severe trouble is the acid test.

When this sifting process is finished you are stripped to the irreducible minimum and you may save a lot of money on gifts for different occasions throughout the coming years. And you no longer have to worry about whether or not so and so is truly a friend. Painful though it be, you now know!

Over the years I have watched as friends and associates go through trouble and suffer enormous pain as those thought to be friends demonstrate that they are associates, take the wings of the morning and fly away. Rather than accepting the evidence shown by the facts of God's test, they spend way too much time running to those who are hiding from them or who, will talk surreptitiously with them, trying to restore a friendship that never was.

I watched as a friend kept running back to a group that had written him off. Time and again they rebuffed him, yet he was determined to make them like him. When he finally accepted the reality of the situation he was heartbroken. He said, "Larry, I suppose you think I am a perfect fool." I assured him that no one is perfect, but he was getting close.

And then I shared the above verse from Proverbs 17:17 with him along with a gem from R.W. Emerson:

"It is one the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."

This rumination is not designed as a test for your so called friends, but a little thought provoker to see whether or not you are a friend to your friends.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2006 Use with credit

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