"Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family." (Proverbs 18:24, The Message)
When I first left my hometown to go to college I was excited. I was the first to go away to school in my extended family. Others had gone to local college (Anderson) but no one else had moved away. Okay, so I was only 45 minutes from home, but when everyone lives only 5 minutes apart, 45 minutes seems like a long trip. Our trips to Indianapolis were only 20-25 minutes, so going to Muncie was pretty far.
After getting married that fall and Peggy and I moved into our first apartment in Muncie and we discovered something, that 45 minutes trip home for us seemed like an eternity and we were alone. It was a new experience for us, living so far away from family. And even though I had friends at school, we had little in common. We felt like we lived on an island, alone.
It took a few months and we developed some friends in the apartments, but it wasn't the same. We continued to long for "home." So before I graduated we had an opportunity to move into a nice older home in Lapel. We took it, eventually bought that house and moved back to our home town, where we could be with our family.
Family has always been important to both Peggy and me. We were taught that, shown that in both of our families. Moving back home meant the world to us. We weren't alone anymore. We had found our place.
You can imagine then what it was like for us to receive a call to ministry and the challenge to move away. At first as we tried to understand what God wanted us to do, we questioned it because we remembered what we felt like when we moved away the first time! And to be a part of another church was intimidating to say the least. It was like being asked to move to a foreign country and it was called Kokomo (Indiana).
But we discovered something (and I promise to get to the point quickly now.) that we didn't expect. We found, after a while, that this church family was becoming our family. We had moved almost an hour away from home so our families rarely made the trip to see us and since church work takes up the weekend, we didn't go home much either. So to find our church family filling the gap in our lives was surprising and beautiful.
I never understood the time Jesus was teaching and his family came to the house and asked for him, but he refused to see them! Then he said that his family were those who did the will of God, that his disciples were his brothers, and others in the "church" were his sisters and mother. But now I got it. The church family is the real family of God.
At every church we have served, including our home church in Lapel, we have seen that the people there made up our true family. This is the one that we will spend eternity with. This is the family that is there for us when we need someone. This is the family I depend on.
Now don't get me wrong, I still respect and love my blood family just as much as ever, maybe even respect them more for what they are and what they have taught me about being a part of a great family. They were teaching me about God's family without even realizing it.
You are my brothers and sisters and friends. You are my family.
And I'm very proud of that!
Peace ><>
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3 comments:
Family are the ones that God puts before you and into your heart. Blood family can be so dear and at times so challenging. True family, the ones that God chooses for us are precious gifts.
My heart sings because God has given me such a great family at Church of the Four Seasons.
The neat thing about having such a large church-family that shares and connects so well, is that it provides experience beyond that of blood family. I will be the first to say that there are some interesting characters in my family, but I also find it amazing the depth of connection and understanding I can share with a fellow christian because of a common bond that is so very personal and powerful.
I love the story of Jesus identifying his family as those around him. It showed the closeness he felt with humanity, or rather the willingness to call us his own. In larger part it showed the love God wants to personally share with each individual.
His love for us despite our present condition, leaves me in a perpetual state of 'Constant Reverence'.
"A true friend sticks by you like family"
True friends are very hard to find! I too remember those first days of marriage. It was so hard being away from family and my friends. However,I was so excited when I found out my "best friend" from high school would be living just a few miles away from me.
I was living in married student housing at Ball State and she was living in one of the dorms at BSU. I was just sure she would be there when I needed someone to talk to, or someone to "hang out" with. Boy was I wrong!
I remember once when I was going through a particularly difficult time and called on my "best friend" for support. I found out very quickly that she really didn't care about me. She was much more concerned about her new friends than she was me.
I think I have seen this friend once in the past 25 years. All my phone calls, emails and letters to her over the years have gone unanswered. I guess she wasn't the true friend I thought she was.
On the other hand, my dear friend Vicki has been there whenever I have needed her. We may not see or talk to each other for years, but I know that she will always be there for me.
She was one of the first people to come see me when my children were born. She sat with me at the funeral home when my mom died, and was at the funeral for my dad. I know without a doubt if I called right now and said I needed her, she would be by my side in a matter of hours. She is a true friend!
A true friend is hard to find. I am so thankful for the true friends God has placed in my life. I pray that as I count my true friends, they can count me as a true friend!
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