A True Friend (Bulletin Article for October 7)
[NOTE: Sunday, October 7, the 9th Avenue church of Christ will host her annual Friends and Family Day. Our goal is to have 600 in attendance for Sunday morning worship. We will have Bible classes at 9:30 AM, worship at 10:30, a noon meal and worship at 6 PM. You are invited to attend and be our special guest. If you can come, please do!
With that in mind, I wrote the following article on friendship for our weekly bulletin. It is not a “normal” article for me, seeing as how it has zero scripture references and does not have 2 or 3 points. Instead, I felt a “general” article on being a true friend would be appropriate. I hope you enjoy it.]
We live in a world of solitude. While people live in the same neighborhood, very little interaction occurs. In fact, we have even reduced the possibility of interaction by the design of our homes. Think of homes built in the last 10 years or so. A vast majority are without a feature where neighbors used to constantly meet for tea, fellowship, games and music. Our houses do not have front porches that welcome old friends.
This causes me to wonder if our young people even understand the meaning of “friend.” They long for true friends. It should come as no surprise that “social networking” sites on the Internet, such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com are some of the largest out there. It is also no surprise that young people use these sites more than any other demographic. They feel a need to connect with those around them in some way. When connections do not take place in the neighborhood or at school, young people turn to the Internet.
Even adults are often without close companions. It is a tragedy that many husbands and wives—who should be closer than anyone else on earth—almost never speak to one another. We marry our best earthly friend, then we cut them off by filling our day with busy activities.
People are looking for true friendship. We are looking for someone with whom we can share our deepest emotions, fears, dreams, fantasies and secrets. We are looking for someone to whom we can share our successes and failures, and know that our friend will be there through both.We could turn this article into a discourse on how God offers all these things to us when we pray. He does all these things and more. He is the greatest Friend! But we need human friends, too.
A little girl was crying because of a storm and called for her daddy. He tried to calm her by telling her that God was always there. The little girl said, “I know that, daddy, but sometimes I need someone with skin on!”
We are all like that little girl from time-to-time. Knowing that we often want a true friend, can we not offer to be a true friend to others? Friends and Family Day is, in part, about showing others that we can be a true friend.
Let’s not be solitary. Let’s be friendly. True friends are rare, but they are a treasure. Be one to someone who needs a real friend.
