Through the Tears of Blood

How will you know a true friend? How will you know who is going to ride through those waves of blood with you? How will you know who really loves you and will lay their life down for you? You're going to have to get in the ship and ride those waves with him. I've known a good number of people during my short lifetime, and over the years you see this exact scenario. You reach some sort of horrid impasse and either they stick through it, or they leave and possibly even throw a few stones on the way out. I'm kind of sad to put it this way. I honestly wish we could just all take a test or ask a few questions and suddenly low and behold we know who will be a true friend.

My best friends are those who I've fought with. The ones who have borne the brunt of my sin. This is how it's always going to be. To reach a certain level in your friendship you have to accept the challenge of that level of friendship.

If your friendships are about hilarious/well-thought out responses on Facebook and an occasional pithy comment about the sermon on Sundays, your friendship will never go beyond that level. And those friendships will break down as I've seen time and time again. They're not based on anything of value. No substance. Substance isn't something that's built through fun and games, although they certainly have their place, substance comes from hard work and long hours.

Your family is going to generally be some of your best friends because you're stuck together. You grow up with your family. But in the modern day society of baby care, preschool, K-12, college, and eventually a job in who knows where as long as it pays you enough, your own family won't be your best friends.

People say that friendships will last forever if you're always there for each other and care for each other. Yes, true. But why do half of marriages end in divorce? Why do the majority of young people shack up? (In answer to that, the previous generation was the divorcing generation and now naturally the children don't want to have to go through the pain and suffering their parents went through, so they naturally avoid marriage but want some sort of emotional/physical relationship to satisfy them. I read an article on that recently, anyways...)

See? People aren't willing to go through the hard times. This is a new phenomena to some extent. People didn't break off marriage relationships or avoid them altogether just a hundred years ago. We're living in a society that can't have strong relationships. They don't have the ability. They don't have to stick around through a fight, because they could go to school, go to work, take an airplane 2,000 miles away, or can just escape into a movie/computer.

Please guys, live in a way that you can take the seas of blood and hardship. Don't be the one who is ending their marriage or not getting married because you are so selfish that you will break off a covenant or avoid it for that reason.

Friends are amazing. Friends are those who love you. They care about you. They are standing next to you in the ship and when the waves get big and everyone else runs or goes crazy they will still be standing at the helm next to you. Maybe you're missing an arm or your face is destroyed beyond all recognition, but they still stand with you.

Christ is going to always be our ultimate friend. He died for us. Can we all try to emulate him and lay down our lives?