“In friendship we get to look like Jesus, journeying two by two, arm in arm, becoming more than we could ever be by ourselves. We are designed for this grand company. And that is powerful.”- Dick Foth
“My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”- John 15:12-15 (NIV)
“Think where a man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was that I had such friends.”- William Butler Yeats
In Chapter 5 (“Who Is More Important Than What”) of A Trip around the Sun, Dick Foth notes the important role titles play in Washington, D. C. In the hallowed halls of Capitol Hill, power and prestige reign. However, Dick observes, when friendship arrives, cancel all bets. Because friendship serves as a game changer. It bridges the gap of status and power. Therefore, everyone wins when your credential say ‘Friend.’
Furthermore, Dick asserts, our soldiers in WW II knew better than anyone else that friendship represents the greatest title and highest rank you can achieve. Unlike regular army soldiers, wounded Airborne Rangers reunited with their company after rehabilitation. The same guys they’d fought with, ate with, and laughed with — from the beginning.
Most significantly, Dick states, friendship is vulnerable as well as sacrificial. Certainly, then, you cannot:
- negate the strength of friendship.
- underestimate the durability of a bond forged in the fires of adversity.
- belittle the force of prayers on behalf of those we simply ‘like.’
In conclusion, Dick comments on Jesus’ disparate bunch of disciples. Dick stresses:
“More than just followers, they are His friends. It is all about mission and spirit and truth. . . . The reality that Jesus describes and embodies becomes the dream, the tracks on which they run.”
Today’s question: How did God design you for grand company with Jesus? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Prophetic words – nicknames”
