Scatter Brained Thoughts to Follow up on Friendship

Yesterday walking with friends, it dawned on me how very much I take them for granted.  They pray for me, tell me the truth, cry with me, laugh with me, and understand my quirks and forgive me, and some how love me.   Some people never have one friend, let alone multiple friends that have stuck with them through thick and thin.  

Not too long ago, a group of us went to New York.  I really do not know that I have ever laughed so hard in my life.  From the moment we arrived at the airport, Sondie never stopped talking to the cabbies, salesclerks, waitresses, bellhops, ANYBODY and EVERYBODY!!  She was a sight to behold.  We seem to always see the amazing qualities in others; when we know that we are not like that at all.  Fading into the background is the name of the game with me.  At the Met she explained anatomy to some guys that were then stressing over years, diets, or events to come.  She talked to a man on the phone that had just met a celebrity!  I thought she was going to bring he and his wife home for dinner.  It didn't matter that she was eavesdropping, all the world is not just a stage when you are Sondie, or when you are the star. No one identifies with the depth of my heart like Sondie.  She looks at people with the eyes of Christ, seeing each and everyone on the planet as created in the image of the Father.  

We went to the Broadway Play Wicked, and one of the lines of the songs says, "don't wish, don't start, wishing only wounds the heart."  She has wished, she has dreamed, and she has been ground into the dregs of life.  She knows what it is like to be hurt.  She also, knows that in Christ alone our wishes do come true, and she wants the world and all it's inhabitants to know who she has found.  

Lynette kept us all going the right way where ever we went.  She studied the maps, the walls, the stars.  She also fixed my hair and kept me on track in many other ways. I have admired in her for years for she is one of the best mothers I have ever met.  She not only helps all of us keep on track with our priorities, we see this as she models it before the world.  She teaches her girls about what is most important and they stand out as special godly, young women that love in a way that shows that they, as well, have their priorities in line.  

Staying up one night talking, we discussed friendships and the ways in which they enrich our lives, and some of the particular thorns and thistles that we as women go through.  As believers we are often tied to the "ideal," our expectations rule every relationship that we encounter.  Some of us, me especially, are tied to the the perfection and ideals of every aspect of life that Heaven is something that is sought, and I forget that it is not to be found in this place of the"not yet."  

  Belinda is grounded in reality more so than any of us.  In her solid, "brick-like" exterior, s=he has compassion for those that I would never even glance at.  She counts the cost, and obeys her Father.  I have learned from her that life is a marathon, not a sprint.  Many times I would have given up, and she simply explained that that really wasn't an option.  She has defied all the conventional wisdom of life, and through God's grace she has landed on her feet over and over again.  Gifted in her own unique ways, she is satisfied to be the Diva and we all do her bidding.  Ba-linda......

Cathy is a new friend that has been through suffering beyond her years.  She is beautiful inside and out.  Because of the suffering she has gone through she prays.  Ask her to pray about something and you know that you are being lifted up before the throne of grace.  When you are a prayer warrior, you have a great sense of the knowledge of your own sin and the reality of how very much you need Jesus.   When one has gone through suffering you know that when you come out the other side you realize the control of life has never really been yours in the first place.  Then to stay on your knees is the only rational place to be.  I look forward to the years to come and getting to know the intricacies of this beautiful life.  

Last but not least, Sandra the wise owl who only has to give you a look and you know that you shouldn't have said what you just said, or that you are loved through and through.  God dwells with this wise woman.  God uses her in myriad of ways, at times and in ways that she doesn't even realize.  She has suffered in her life, and she knows that much of it was brought on by her own sin and selfishness.  We all know this to be true, but how many of us are humble enough to use say it openly, and to use it for God's glory.  I love her, and all of these women, that are unique, and show the creativity, and character of God. 

 

"Because I knew you, (Sondie, Lynette, Cathy, Belinda, and Sandra) I have been changed for good...."

I'm limited

Just look at me - I'm limited

And just look at you 

You can do all I couldn't do,

So now it's up to you

For both of us - now it's up to you...

 I've heard it said

That people come into our lives for a reason

Bringing something we must learn

And we are led

To those who help us most to grow

If we let them

And we help them in return

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true

But I know I'm who I am today

Because I knew you

Like a comet pulled from orbit

As it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder

Halfway through the wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

I have been changed for good

It well may be

That we will never meet again

In this lifetime

So let me say before we part

So much of me 

Is made of what I learned from you

You'll be with me

Like a handprint on my heart

And now whatever way our stories end

I know you have re-written mine

By being my friend...

Like a ship blown from its mooring 

By a wind off the sea

Like a seed dropped by a skybird

In a distant wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

 Because I knew you

 I have been changed for good

 And just to clear the air

I ask forgiveness

For the thing I've done you blame me for

 But then, I guess we know

There's blame to share

 And none of it seems to matter anymore

 Like a comet pulled from orbit

As it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder

Halfway through the wood

 Like a ship blown from its mooring 

By a wind off the sea

Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood

 Who can say if I've been 

Changed for the better?

I do believe I have been

Changed for the better

And because I knew you...

 Because I knew you...

 Because I knew you...

I have been changed for good. 

..........From the Broadway Play, Wicked