What does it mean to be a friend?
The word is used in a very wide range of ways from a first time acquaintance to an intimate, long-term active relationship. Friendship may be predicated upon a history of common interests or beliefs or based on current needs and interaction. It may have come about and be sustained by relatively shallow common ground like mutual interest in in sports or numerous hobbies or it may rest upon much deeper foundations of kindred spirit, shared goals and beliefs, or enjoyment of each other’s company.
What seems to be common to these ideas is sharing of something in common. There must be some level of agreement between friends. That agreement may even be to exclude certain conversations in order to preserve what is common, but that must result in a level of shallowness in the relationship. Deep friendship must involve an openness to discuss and express a full range of what is important to either person.
Scripture has numerous passages on friendship. Following are but a few that caught my attention:
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is is born for adversity.” Proverbs 17:17
“For the despairing man there should be kindness from his friend; so that he does not forsake the fear of the Almighty.” Job 6:14
One who will abide in God’s tent does not “take up a reproach against his friend” Psalm 15:3c
“A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24
From these ideas I saw that a friend to me is someone that acts in a certain way. I know that my ideas in this blog are far from complete but they do represent a good starting point for considering what friendship is and what we expect of it. I hope that a person who is my friend will have many of the following characteristics and I certainly want to strive to provide these actions for others:
A friend initiates, listens, confronts, encourages, remembers, takes time, cares, shares, confides, counsels, walks with, forgives, enjoys, endures, believes, advises, stays with a friend.
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