As one astute observer once said, “You can pick your nose and you can pick your friends, but you can’t wipe your friends underneath the seat.” How true. How very true. Except maybe in the case of true friends, you don’t pick them. God does. In my case, I’ve always been surprised to see who God places in my life and what that person has to teach me.

True friendship is about believing the absolute best about people, even when they have stopped believing it themselves. It’s about believing in them when they can’t believe in themselves anymore.

True friendship is about hoping the best for your friends, even when they’ve lost hope. It’s about you being their strength and sometimes carrying them when they can no longer walk.

True friendship is about doing everything in your power to see them moved toward healing and wholeness and freedom. It’s your job to see them looking more like Christ and to be open to them doing the same for you. Because you need just as much healing, wholeness, freedom and Christlikeness as they do.

True fiendship is about never, never, never, never, never, never giving up on your friends. Even after they’ve blown that 10,000th chance, you still offer the 10,001st, because God has offered way more fresh starts to us than that. Way more than we can count, in fact.

Ultimately, being a friend is about being Jesus to that person. For as long as he or she is in your life, you are to be Jesus to him or her. I’ve always loved the saying that goes, “A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” I truly believe that the song you sing to that person is one that reminds them of who they are in Jesus and how He sees them.

So that’s what I am striving toward in my friendships. I pray you do the same. Because ultimately we need each other and the world needs to see us loving each other with the love of Christ. That’s the kind of radical living that will change the world.

Amen and amen!