Friends

We have just had a whirlwind weekend. Went to the 115th anniversary celebration of a church we had served 28 years ago. We had the opportunity to see people who had been in our youth group back in the late 70's. We also saw the pastor with whom we worked. There were many memories revisited during the day, and it seemed as if we had not been separated by all those years.
Today I had the opportunity to spend most of the day with a dear friend who had once been in my college ministry, and later served as an intern with me between college and seminary. We spent the day remembering things we had learned together in ministry and in studying to become certified as Intentional Interim Pastors. The beauty of this time was being able to think out loud and bounce ideas off one another without fear of being put down, or worse, ignored. As we plan together for some mutual ministry opportunities, our friendship is deepening. The truth of the matter is, real close, deep friendships are hard to come by. They must be nurtured and require purposeful attention. This can happen by phone, email, IM, if seeing each other face to face is not possible. Friends are a special gift from God, and there is a stewardship issue involved. Now, go call, write, or e-mail a friend, before you forget it.