Friendship

I am going to try to keep this one nice and sweet, but sometimes I really never know how exactly these things are going to turn out. In life you meet a lot of people. It is an only obvious fact that you are going to like some people better than others. Should it happen, well if we are honesty with what the Bible says no. But yet fact remains there are definitely those who you enjoy their company more compared to other people. Yet the question and the issue I pose today is what exactly makes one of those people your friend? And even more so what makes them one of your friends in your close circle?
Because we all have friends yet again it is an obvious nature we are going to have some friends who are closer then others? But what makes them one of your friends in the first place? Obviously there is something about them that at least peeks your interest about them, otherwise there would be no real desire to hang out with them as often as you do or that you want to do.
Yet some people when they are talking about their close friends will have a wide and large group of people. Now on the one hand this may not seem too strange because it just means there is a lot of people you are very close with. But I think one of the key words in the statement which must be addressed is close. Because close in terms of friends is the inner circle, the group of people you trust the most and you can share anything with. The close group of friends who are the people you share the most. Even Jesus had a close group of the disciples. It did not mean he loved the rest any less, but he had his own close group of people. I think too often we may try, and by the way when I say we, again I am also referring to myself, we put too many people in our close circle. I think the close circle of friends should really be exactly that close. It should be more of your inner circle of friends who will always be there and you can actually share anything and everything with.
But more so, I think we need to be careful about who we call our friends in general. Because I think too often we get the ideal of a friend and maybe a close association mixed up. We will meet many people along the road in life and we have many friends. But at some point many of those people we call friends we don’t see or talk too ever again, sometimes even when we have the ability to do so. This makes me question how close we ever were in the beginning. Or if someone calls you their friend, or you call them yours, but then one or both do nothing to show any signs of friendship, which by the way is not really terribly difficult to do, were you really friends in the first place?
I am beginning a process in which I do from time to time. I am evaluating the relationships n my life. Because there are some people who I say are in my close circle maybe don’t really belong there. There are people who I call my friend, sometimes I question if I am really their friend or just a close association, or there are people who I know I have to make more of an effort to be a friend too, if I want to call them my friend.
The point I am making is you are going to meet a lot of people. You will get a long with a lot of people. I am not bringing down close associations. Most people probably do not like that term, but I think it is important to realize who your friends are. Don’t get me wrong, some friends are only for a season, it is going to happen in life, I know from personal experience. But take time as I do and try to honestly reflect on some of those people who you call a friend or who call you a friend. Is there a friendship or is there a “friendship”. And take time to consider who is in your close circle. Because your close circle really should be the people you are friends for life. The people who you could put your very life in your hands and not give it a second thought. Friends are a very important thing, and I think we need to understand just how important they are.