Monday, December 29, 2014

12 Days Left - Friendship and Loneliness


Who do you feel most like yourself around?  

God has given us incredible friends here in Vancouver.  The other day, I wept with a friend as we considered this next chapter of ministry in two different places.  Have you ever felt the companionship of a true friend? -- I hope so.  It's David and Jonathan type stuff: "the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul" (1 Samuel 18:3).

The older I get the more I observe how God seems to give us only a handful of deep friendships over the course of our lives.  Maybe it's because deep friendships are so fulfilling, a few of them are all we need to tangibely encounter the love of God.  I am thankful for the "soul friendships" God has given us here….and I pray that God won't leave our souls lonely in Fresno.

J. Oswald Sanders writes that our feeling of loneliness stems from a fundamental truth in the human condition.  Humans profoundly feel alienated from God.  Every time we feel lonely, it's a reminder of a deeper loneliness at the center of every human heart.

If I am honest, sometimes I fear being lonely.  But loneliness is only a reminder that I long for God, for His companionship.

The story of the entire Bible is about God repairing that alienation through His covenantal love for us, the lonely ones….I think one of the ways He does that is through "soul friends."

 God, thank you for the friends you've knit our lives to here in Vancouver….please keep us knitted to them -- and to soul friends in Fresno that you will provide in this next chapter of ministry you've called us to. 

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