Faith in Friendship
During my last weeks in Washington, a few of my girls and I studied the Word together one last time. We read, prayed, talked too much, stayed up WAY too late and drank too much coffee! You know what else we did? We shared the messy stuff, we asked difficult questions, we broke wide open and we cried (crying is good for the soul, y’all). It tooks us time to reach the point of being this vulnerable with one another. It was so good.
Ironically this was the theme of our study. How the Lord allows things to break open to yield something new. Something better. The seed breaking open to yield new life. Perfect parenting plans destroyed to learn to love bigger. Jesus dying on the cross so that we would never be alone (See John 16:7). He promises to work all things for our good even if it doesn’t feel good. Was my faith big enough to take a step that started with my broken heart, our broken hearts?
We had all witnessed the Lord's faithfulness to do this before. He had certainly made beauty from my own mess time and again. Our new chapter just felt so heavy and let's be honest no one really wants to say goodbye to their best friends. He knew far before we did what we needed (we chose this study before we knew what the next chapter held). He was walking us through letting go. He was comforting us as a loving father does. It's strange how I didn’t see the parallel of our friendships and the breaking open until now, months later. The breaking open of our hearts to one another was the very thing that yielded an unexpected bond. When we bared our souls he knit them together. This was hard stuff but it yielded real fellowship and life long friendship.
Our souls were made for community such as this. We're better together. His Word tells us in Proverbs 27:17 that "As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." I need what you have and I have what you need. When I have right relationship with the Lord and I honor Him with my friendships he blesses me through them. When asked what the greatest commandment was Jesus replied, "'You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' When we love each other well we honor the Lord. His desire is to use us to pour out His love. Isn't He generous!?
Yet here I sit, struggling to bare my soul once again. I have to trust that He is working even where I can't yet see it. I have to be obedient and I have to be brave. We all have to be brave. You're worth the risk, I'm worth the risk and He is faithful. We can rest in that.