Relationships take time and energy. They take commitment and determination to succeed and grow. When our relationships are established on superficial smiles and quaint clichés of happy trivialities, they are lacking in the depth that is necessary to sustain them. We can enjoy these sorts of friendships for a time, but these are the connections that do not last and over time dissipate at the slightest testing. Perhaps these are not relatinonships at all, but familiarities sterile of weightiness.
There is a process called distillation, which in the course of heating a mixture in order to condense it into a more pure form of the substance desired, in this process there is a higher quality resulting. This is the case in quality and lasting relationships. It is the trials of life that show us what we are made of and what motivates us. If when the difficulties come, we face them with fortitude and do not shrink away in fear and run from them, we show our enduring love for our friend.
When we face the trials head on, determined to know our friend, and discover our own heart, then we are walking in love. Christ’s love seeks not it’s own, as He has told us, but it seeks the best for our friend. Our friendship, if we walk with the Lord, will be evaluated on the basis of God’s Word and His Will. Do we want our friend to walk with the Lord in holiness, or are we more concerned about enjoying one another in happiness. God wants us to be distilled, pressed down and shaken together, that we might become strong and spiritually pure.
Pleasure in our friendship can never be the motivating factor in our walk together, but God’s full purpose must drive us in all that we hope for in our friendship. Pleasure very often is a byproduct of our Christ like walk with our companion, but not the stimulant.
Those individuals who yearn for penetrating kinship with friends, will walk through life seeking the denseness of fine fabric tightly woven together building a strength that is not easily torn or frayed. Our desires will always be for the Lord’s best in one another.
The trials of life only strengthen these sturdy fellowships and the joys are doubled when shared with a friend of quality, one who seeks the Lord in all occasions for His design. That one stays with us when we are not perfect, and has no expectation that we sustain perfection in order to remain our friends. But will correct us when we fail and lift us up when we get back on the path again. That friend will raise his spiritual voice to us when we are feeble and disobedient to Christ and mercifully soften it again when we repent.
Very often our human relationship dynamics reflect our relationship with the Lord. If we stay focused on the superficial with our friends, chances are good that we are doing the same with our Lord. Our prayers become shallow and selfish as we use the Lord like we would dance a puppet on a string, requiring Him to fulfill our every desire and ease of life.
When we seek the Lord with all our heart we see a very different bent in our walk. We see a heart that regards the commands of God above all else. That person sees all circumstances as from Him and worthy of praise, whether they be happy or sad. They are all lessons to be learned and attitudes to be altered.
Let us remember that relationships are established on the basis of much time spent and not on short periods of scheduled time.
Let us also not forget, that if we are careless and flimsy with our friends, we are probably acting the same way toward our Lord.
