There’s nothing like a true friend. Most of my closest friends (aside from my husband, who is in fact my BEST friend) were made in college. There are about 4 girls that I feel certain I will be friends with for my entire life. I got to talk to one of them last night, and it was so good. All 4 of these girls live a pretty good distance away from me. I don’t get to see them nearly as often as I’d like, and I don’t call them nearly as often as I should. But when we do talk, it’s like we haven’t missed a beat. We’re still just as close as we were when we lived together, or just down the hall, or whatever the case may have been. I am confident, that my conversation last night was ordained by God. It’s strange how I can go six months not talking to someone, then I call her and we have an hour long discussion about some of the intimate details of our spiritual lives. It felt like 5 minutes. I could’ve talked all night. Through what she had to say, and what she brought out of me, I’ve realized that I’m not as close to God as I’m supposed to be, and that’s okay…as long as I am ever pursuing. We’re never going to be as close as we’re supposed to be until we stand in His presence. The Christian life is about the pursuit, or constant growth if you prefer. As long as we are ever moving closer, and never reach a stand still, we’re in His will. We don’t all move at the same pace, and even throughout our individual lives there will be times of sprinting and times of steadily stepping forward little by little. It’s just important to keep stepping. I don’t know if any of that makes sense, but it helped me. God used my friend to help me. We need friends, and not just friends to eat with and go out with. We need friends who will cause us to look inside of ourselves and see where we are and where we need to be going. We need friends to spur us on toward love and good deeds. I’m convinced that friendships like that cannot be forced…they are gifts from God. God places people in our lives that sometimes are nothing like what we would expect our close friends to be. All four of the girls I have mentioned are completely different than each other, and completely different than me, but they are the ones I feel most comfortable being myself with. And that is a precious, precious gift.
-Diana