In my relatively short lifetime, I've learned many things about friends. Some good, some bad. I've had enough friends to realize that they're not all going to always be around. They will enter and exit your life, some with a big to-do about it and others with not so much as a hello or a goodbye. But I've come to the conclusion that real friends are the people who love us not because they have to, but because they want to.
"People come, people go - they'll drift in and out of your life, almost like characters in a favorite book. When you finally close the cover, the characters have told thier story and you start up again with another book, complete with new characters and adventures. Then you find yourself focusing on the new ones, not the ones from the past."
- Nicholas Sparks (The Rescue)
Nicholas Sparks creates a pretty accurate analogy in this quote. I know this from personal experience, and I think in a way most of us do.
So why am I babbling on about friends? No, it isn't because I've had a fight with one of mine, or because I've lost one. It's because I have begun to realize how wonderful the true friends really are, and why they are that way.
Tomorrow, one of my best friends tries out for the football team at the university he attends. He has a real passion for football and sports. He works out and trains nearly every day. He has the kind of heart and spirit that any coach would be proud to have in a player. Basically, this is my friend's dream. This is what he's worked for ever since he transfered to his school last year.
So why am I so focused on it? Well, most college football teams normally practice all the time, year-round, on the weekends, during the off-season...you see where I'm going with this. Now, add in the fact that this isn't just some small college he wants to play for, but an ACC school. If my friend makes this team tomorrow, he won't be coming home very often, and my chances of seeing him will go from slim to even slimmer.
Long story short, I am selfish.
There's no other way to explain it but that. And who can blame me, really? I don't want to have to give up the time I could have with my friend for something that, in the long run, doesn't really matter.
But yesterday, seeing him for the first time in a month, and seeing the joy and excitement and nerves that tomorrow is bringing him...it makes me want only the best for him. And that's the point I'm getting at.
Real friends want what's best for their friends.
I call myself a "real friend."
Therefore, I need to want what's best for my friends.
My friend told me yesterday that as long as I'm happy, he's happy. In my eyes, that is the epitome of a true friend.
Tonight I attempted to encourage him with an awesome translation of one of the most popular pieces of scripture in the Bible:
"Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through the One who makes me who I am."
- Philippians 4:13 (MSG)
Now if that doesn't calm his nerves and give him strength, I don't know what will! I'm striving to support him through prayer and encouragement, as well as through my words and actions.
I've heard it said that "friends pick us up when we fall down, and if they can't pick us up, they sit down and listen for a while." I want to be the kind of friend who is there through thick and thin, and who selflessly supports the ones I love in all that they do.
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