UNEXPECTED FRIENDS

I have an amazing friend. Marg is someone who I've known for a few years. But it feels like we have been friends since childhood. She knows the very core of me, she hears the cries of my heart, and rejoices in the joys of my soul. Every moment spent with her is joy to me. She is one of the friends that God has sent, when I needed it most. When I look back on times that God has sent people along my path that I needed or that needed me, I am always amazed.

With Marg it was so clear. I was sharing my personal testimony on a Saturday night service during Lay Leaders Weekend. I had never met Marg and I could tell when she greeted me after the service she was on fire for God. And she shared that she had many of the same experiences I had (wounds and joys). I thought she was the warmest, most open human being I knew. And our friendship just grew from there. We found that we had many things in common. And few people make me laugh like Marg does.

The thing about Marg is she is so authentic. She's serious about her faith journey and this is the place I think our friendship has grown and blossomed -- as we experience the living God together and share all our experiences--pains and joys, failures and struggles--I just feel enveloped in the love of Christ in this friendship.

I don't think there are coincidences. I think my friendship with Marg is God's reminder of what I needed and what Marg needed. And to feel God's amazing blessing in this relationship is just so like God--to pour out His abundant love.

Are there relationships like that for you? Are there people God has put in your life for a specific time and a specific purpose? I know that I'm more aware and awakened to that fact that every moment is extraordinary. Every moment has God's mark on it. And I'm grateful for that.

I wrote this poem at the time I met Marg and I had experienced other friends God put in my life...

BE GOOD FRIENDS
(based on passage from Romans, in the Message by Eugene Peterson: Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. 1Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.)

Be good friends, who love deeply
Face each other in love and understanding
In friendship, be true and open up your lives and hearts
And in humility pray for each other--
For patience, wisdom, peace, forgiveness, trust.

And embrace the failings and hurts that are caused--
with honesty and understanding--
To accept each other in humanness

For this simple truth remains: Sharing and receiving love in
True, deep, connected friendship in concrete ways
Requires us to open our hearts, to risk ourselves
And there is both pain and uncomfortableness in that truth sometimes

But only in honest, authentic friendship that is ordained by God
Can we learn about ourselves--the treasures in our hearts,
Who God has called us to be, what gifts we have to offer the world

For in God-given ordinariness, we rediscover each other

In a profound way.