We can only be grateful for our recent weather. Winter passes by more and more with each day. Odds are good that trees and other stuff will soon be blooming out. The good part of this turn of events is that it's much easier to be outside. One of the few drawbacks is I keep going outside to jog/walk on the track. All I will say this evening is that my legs only hurt except for where they are numb. Not even Rocky Balboa in his last movies moves slower than I do. But you will find no complaining here as long as it feels warmer than last week. Texas does have a habit of going from winter to early summer without ever really having much spring. Such is the price you pay for not dealing with constant snow.

Let's return for a few minutes to consider the topic of dealing with friendship. I think it gets a bad rap because we fail to grasp how essential these relationships are in being fully human. Perhaps we think of friends as something disposable rather than important. Even the great people in scripture could grasp how others could play a huge role in spiritual maturity. Moses would lean on family and friends while leading the people through the wilderness. David will anchor his journeys to various friends both before and after becoming king. Surely some of those disciples would develop connection that lasted as they followed Jesus. Even our most favorite apostle Paul will build healthy friendships as he went from sinner to saint. People do matter as we become all God desires for us.

I delivered a sermon years ago in a land far, far away. It dealt with the issue of loneliness in the church experience. My own growth was taking me into lessons on dysfunctional relationships in family and friends. God was graciously leading me into truth so desperately needed in my pilgrimage of faith. Odds are good that the sermon itself was really not all that spectacular. My notes don't reflect that it was anywhere near a masterpiece. But at the time of our Baptist invitation there was a member of the choir who almost jumped down to me while in tears. His confession stunned me at that young age. What he told me is that his own feelings of being alone were getting the best of him. This was someone who was active in ministry as well as a gifted believer. What I heard through his sobs is that even those who we could never imagine as feeling alone may sense that pain the most.

We like to sing the song, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Yet it may very well be we cannot grasp the full meaning of its message. Someone recently told me that the reason for his changing churches has to do with friendship more than anything else. Churches place so much emphasis on performance, management and other issues that we forget basic human relating. I agree with the writer who said that original evangelism was about people involving friends and family in the Christian faith. Jesus is very much our friend. But how are we doing with everyone else?

Bro. Trey