Who are our friends? =)

As we take this time during the holidays to relax, recharge and chill with friends and family, lets ask ourselves as well, "Who are our friends?" 

Well, the friends we have says alot about us and the person that we are. In this life, we go through looking for that 'best friend', that lifetime companion, someone who genuinely cares about us, someone whom we have no fear opening up our deepest and darkest secrets to, someone who's there through the good and bad times... Someone who loves us unconditionally. But often a true friend seems so hard to find, and the pain of disappointment and betrayal is one familiar to us all. I remember a (maybe-not-so-)funny analogy, 'A false friend is like your shadow, he comes out when the sun is shining, but disappears once you step into the shade.' ^^"

But over the years I've found the one true friend who has always been by my side, even before my first breath and thought. And that's Jesus Christ =) He's the only one that can fill all our emotional needs, even in the lowest of times when we feel we don't measure up, or can't compare to others, or just feeling plain lousy about ourselves. He comforts us all those times when we're hurt that no one seems to have noticed our efforts or contributions, and He's there right through our struggles with sins and temptations. Truly, we love, because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

And because of that, we can give of ourselves so freely to others, in extending a helping hand, giving words of encouragement, and sharing the gospel, even when we don't feel like it, even when there doesn't seem to be any benefit in it for us, even when the person is so unlovable. That, I've found, is the one thing that can keep us going on, no matter the hardships and trials we face in our personal ministry.

True friends always keep giving, and never demanding of us. True friends are never exclusive or selfish, but instead liberate us to be the best we can be, liberate us to share that love and friendship with all around us; true friendship is always growing. Once we know and love the Greatest Friend of all, Jesus Christ, it's hard not to want to share this wonderful friend with all our friends. I've found not being able to share Christ with my friends, has become akin to not be able to share about my life at all =)

Jesus Christ has often been called a 'friend of the sinners'. No, it was not the teachers of the law, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the high-up clergymen whom Jesus dined with during His time on earth, rather it was the lepers, the tax-collectors, the prostitutes, the unwanted and unloved in society that He turned his attention to. I can imagine whom in today's society Jesus would have dined with, would have been friends with: the oddballs in our class, the school cleaners, our maids at home, the foreign workers, the AIDS victims, the prostitutes, the mentally disabled, the physically handicapped... And on the political scale, who knows, perhaps even the North Korean leaders, the Middle-east insurgents...

So my brothers and sisters, lets truly be the church of God, friends of Jesus Christ, friends to the world =)

God bless,

Pet