Friendship

Oh man. I was invited to be part of the teaching pool at our church... and the upcoming series is going to be on... friendship.

My first thoughts went something like this: Well that's just stupid, because I SUCK at friendship. I'm a terrible friend. I've never been a good friend. I only HAVE any friends because they're either the kindest, most gracious people in the world and they likely feel sorry for me, or they don't know me very well and are sadly mistaken.

Yeah, yeah... I know that's my usual bit of dramatic exaggeration and feeling sorry for myself (mostly). But still... what do I know about friendship?

So, I've been thinking about this for a couple weeks. Oddly enough, my mind keeps coming back to two things: compassion & forgiveness. Also, and somewhat related to rediscovering those things is, again what seems unrelated to friendship, is the need to occasionally get away. Jesus seemed to practice this. The desert fathers & mothers did this. Getting away from people IN ORDER TO be a better friend to people.

I dunno. I got nothin' else today, and that's what was on my mind...