Choosing friends

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This week we’ve talked about relationships and the gems that can be hidden under some odd shaped rocks.

Now it’s up to you. Consider it a bit of a challenge to get to know 1 person or an “odd” couple and prove me right or wrong.

Doing this WILL stretch you, it will force you to put your bias aside, it will teach you to love. But most of all you will actually grow. YOU will benefit by sharing a part of you with another human being.

I often think of Jesus in the Bible who was betrayed by Judas. Not only was Judas one of Jesus 12 closest friends, Jesus also gave him the money to look after knowing that Judas was a thief and would steal from it.

How’s that for commitment to a friendship.

At one of my previous churches my wife and I decided to look for an “odd” couple every Sunday and invite them home for lunch. We must have done it 50 or 100 times.

You know what happened?? We made a lot of friends. We made a lot of lonely people less lonely. We started to create a sense of community in our church that wasn’t there before. We didn’t have 1 single occasion where we regretted investing our time or money into meeting these people.

More recently I remember we had dinner with an “interesting” family.

They asked us to come to their house as their children were a handful. As we walked in we saw the wife cleaning pots in the kitchen sink. She was basically spraying floor cleaner on to them as they hadn’t been cleaned for so long. Dinner was edible, just, and had we gone there looking to be pampered or just relax we were going to be disappointed.

However what we discovered was that this family had an ill son who would always require an extraordinary amount of emotional energy and money from his parents. A father who didn’t know how to earn enough money to ensure his wife and son were looked after properly. His fear consumed him to a point where he had no friends and no support.

A mother and wife who had some intellectual challenges and coped with a sick son as best as she could.

We became good friends with these people. You couldn’t wish to meet a more loving, caring, loyal couple as friends and their son, whilst unusual, was highly intelligent and a delight to be around once he trusted us.

This relationship is a treasure to us, but would never ever have occurred if we hadn’t put a hand out to this worlds rejected gems.

Who are YOU having for dinner tomorrow night???

Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus @ www.MassiveAction.co.nz