Are You a Friend to All?
“...Be willing to be a friend of people who aren’t considered important. Don’t think that you are better than others…”
Romans 12:16, NIRV
I love to read different translations of Scripture when I sit down to pray. I find it allows me to read verses that are overly familiar and find a new clarity. This was one such verse.
Throughout my 20s, I battled with a hugely exaggerated sense of my own importance and talent. I was in a job rarely held by someone of my age and, furthermore, I was good at it! All this would have been fine if it had not come with a side portion of treating those around me as “less than:” less capable, less intelligent, less articulate, less ambitious. All the while, I was privately battling debt and insecurities through which God eventually, kindly and generously humbled me–as is His way.
This verse is a challenge to live out for many of us. It requires us to welcome in people who aren’t like us. It requires us to work hard to find areas of common ground. It demands we lay aside prejudice. It asks that we care less about what other people might think of us when they see those with whom we associate.
After a while, though, we find something remarkable happens–we realize that the people with whom we started friendships in order to respond to this Godly calling are our true friends. One morning, we wake up with a crisis and they are our first phone call. We depend on them for help, wisdom or prayer in a moment of vulnerability. And what started as an act of obedience becomes a source of unimaginable blessing.
How kind is the God we serve!
Lord, today keep our hearts and spirits humble before you and others. Open our eyes to see your face in those around us. Help us to be willing to be vulnerable, and to show our needs to those friends around us. Amen.
