A simple friend, when visiting, acts like a guest. A real friend opens your refrigerator and helps himself and doesn’t feel even the least bit weird shutting your ‘beer/Pepsi drawer’ with her foot!)
A simple friend has never seen you cry. A real friend has shoulders soggy from your tears..
Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance to Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out patients at the clinic.
One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man.
After heavy fighting, a soldier returned to camp. With the next day being a Sunday, the Chaplain had set up church service. The men were asked to take out their Bibles or Prayer Books.
The Chaplain noticed one soldier looking at a deck of cards. After service, he was taken by the Chaplain to see the Major. The Chaplain explained to the Major what he had seen.
It takes strength to be firm.
It takes courage to be gentle.
It takes strength to stand guard.
It takes courage to let down your guard.
Many years ago when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.
During my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?”
Imagine you and the Lord Jesus are walking down the road together. For much of the way, the Lord’s footprints go along steadily,consistently, rarely varying the pace. But your footprints are a disorganized stream of zigzags, starts, stops, turnarounds, circles, departures and returns.
