Friendships

Friends are hard to come by. There is a friend that "sticks closer than a brother," and one can only hope that Jesus is not the only true friend (s)he has--not that He isn't sufficient, for He already died for us--but that in this lifetime each person would have a friend that would die, if necessary, under the covenant of friendship. David had Jonathan, who risked his life on David's behalf, all the while knowing that David would some day take his "rightful" place as the king succeeding Jonathan's father's death. In the end, Jonathan died on the battlefield with his father, and in a sense, died for David.


David's lament in II Samuel: 25-26 . . .
25 "How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle!
Jonathan was slain in your high places.
26 I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;
You have been very pleasant to me;
Your love to me was wonderful,
Surpassing the love of women.



I asked myself: Who is it that I would die for? And the question immediately led me to the question: Who is it that would die for me? This is how I believe friendship differs from love. Love is a one-way commitment (the kind that I have for my family); friendship is a reciprocal commitment (the kind I am desperately seeking). It takes two to be friends. In my lifetime I have had friends for whom I believe I would have died, but over time most of those relationships changed to the point at which I'm not so sure I would follow through to the end.



Then I realized that in order to have a close friend one must be a good friend. Am I just a misfit, or do others yearn for the same depth of friendship? Do others wonder what they must do differently in order to gain this rare blessing?