True Friends

I have been really blessed in my life to have had some incredibly close friendships. Some have been born of crisis. Some born of necessity. Some born of proximity. Some born of stage of life. And some seem almost ordained by God. That probably sounds corny, but it's how I feel. I am not the kind of person that can have superficial friendships. I can't just be your friend. I need to be your best friend. I have taken a lot of good natured teasing about that over the years. But perhaps that is why I have such close friendships.

I just spent the week with some people that I feel like God purposed to be my friends. I always feel like I have robbed them of a little piece of themselves when I leave, because I know that I have questioned and prodded and questioned some more until I have absorbed every piece of wisdom, every anecdote, every laugh, every tear and every second that I can while I am with them.

I often wonder how it is that they call me friend, because I don't often hold back with them, and often I fear that I may have sucked the life out of them. They often tell me that they are so glad when I come to visit because they glean so much from me. I don't know how that is true because that is what I would say of them.

Perhaps that is why we are friends. Perhaps we are friends because they don't feel like they have to cheer me up when I am down. They just love me til I am "up" again. Perhaps we are friends because when I am wrong, they tell me I'm wrong. And sometimes they don't even do it gently. Perhaps we are friends because even when I am wrong, they don't hold it against me . . . for very long anyway. Perhaps we are friends because when I question God, they don't try to give me answers, they just help me ask better questions.

All that to say, true friendship is a rare and beautiful gift. It survives time, and circumstance, and distance. Some people say that if you have one true friend in your life, then you can count yourself rich. If that is the case, I am extravagantly wealthy.