Friendship

Whops, I didn't think I would have to post again so soon after my first post so I didn't check the spreadsheet...so this one's for Sunday 3/8. 

These are the quick thoughts I jotted down from Sunday:

To lead by friendship, not to ultimately use someone or have them be a stepping stone for you to get somewhere, but really to have something special such that someone would do as foolish as go into a hopeless battle with you.  

Friendship is a great test of character, do I have it? Honestly I just feel like I use people, get what I want out of them and then when it no longer suits my purposes I move on. Friendship really dies to self, really lays down my life. True love is this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 

I started thinking a bit more about the old hymn today:

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer! 

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15)

Why does Jesus call us His friends? Servant, master, king, lord, God I can understand, but friend? 

I don't know how accurate or controversial this is, but friendship invokes a thought of choice. Whereas those other relationships are more or less by requirement, you can choose to be Jesus' friend, or not. Jesus' friends obey. They obey His commandments.  

Maybe Jesus called us His friends, so that He could show us how to be a friend. To lay down His life, not because He had to or anything like that, but because that's what friends who care about each other do. 

So how often do I think about getting to serve/die for my friends? When you serve, you get the short end of the stick, but you do it anyways because you're friends. Mmm.