A Friend

I have no clue who or if anyone reads these posts, but I will continue to write regardless. I've been thinking a lot lately about friends. So often I think about who is my friend, or what I like to find in a friend, but much less often do I consider what kind of friend I can be. I like having friends who are honest with me, but am I honest to them? I like friends who listen patiently to me, but do I listen to them? I like friends who trust my judgment, but do I trust my friends? I like friends who will stand by me in both the good times and the hard times, but do I remain true to them in those times they need me most? It's hard to put myself in the mind of Christ (in fact, impossible in my sinful nature), but as I grow in Him, I try to think of what He must have been thinking around people. Being completely unselfish, he must have always put their interests first. I guarantee you He wasn't asking Himself what He wanted in friends. In fact, He hung out mostly with people who were nothing like Him (i.e. sinners!). The reason He could do this was that He was being a friend, not seeking friends. If Christ wanted to build an earthly empire of material and social power, He would have made friends with the Roman and Jewish leaders of the day. They were the big dogs who could really benefit Him, not the prostitutes and beggars. Christ was a rebel in the way He acted. He was building a kingdom of spiritual matter that started with sacrifice of comfort for the sake of others. I want to learn to be a friend, not to have friends. It's easy to have friends by sucking up to people or hanging out with like-minded people, but it's incredibly hard to be a friend. I want to learn to be a friend, and one place to start is by offering my friendship to anyone who needs it. I want to care about the needs of others. Living from my viewpoint, the world revolves around me and my life. Proof of this is that I don't miss one second of my life. I can live in every opportunity I come upon. However, I seldom take the time to try and put myself in the shoes of someone else, another human being who has the same struggles, thoughts, worries, joys, and victories. As soon as I can do that, I can start to sympathize and offer myself to them as someone who will stand by them, stand up for them, and support them through all they go through. It's a challenging thought, but I'd like to be a better friend than I've been. I want to learn to love. 

Resting In Peace

R.I.P in our society is equated with "kicking the can." It's on countless gravestones across the country and for good reason, too. However, I think there's more to resting in peace than meets the eye. Resting in peace probably happens most when a believer dies, going to be with his Lord forever, but resting in peace can occur in our every day lives. I love the verse Matthew 11:28, in which Jesus tells us, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Forgive me if I misinterpret the context of the verse, but I don't think he's talking to a crowd of corpses. He's also not telling people that they should commit suicide and rest in peace. His audience at the time was probably an odd conglomeration of mothers, school children, teachers of the law, tax collectors, beggars, prostitutes, thieves, and officials. They all were from different walks of life, some easier than others. His point was that if we are weary or burdened, we can come to Him and find rest. Webster's Dictionary defines "rest" in several ways: 

1. "a bodily state characterized by minimal function." Hmm...I don't think this is what Christ meant. 

2. "freedom from activity or labor." This doesn't mean that we should stop working, but there is a simple sense of relaxing and releasing all the stress that comes from work at Christ's feet.

3. "a place for lodging." Okay, in the context of a homeless person looking for a place to stay the night, that's a cool analogy.

4. "peace of mind and spirit." Now that sounds more like it...the peace that passes all understanding will guard your minds and your hearts in Christ Jesus (Philippians). 

It is simply coming to Christ, laying down our worries upon Him, and knowing that He will give us rest, not anything else we use to try and cope with the world. This is not abandoning the activities of our day, but rather, in the midst of our days, finding rest in the quietness of our hearts knowing that our Savior is with us and desires us to come to Him. It's a cool thought, and I'm glad we can start resting in peace before we're buried ten feet under the ground. Actually, on a final note, the peace we can have now in Christ is simply a glimpse of the glory that will come when we are with Him forever. What a cool thought! Eternal rest...