Distance

Distance. It seems like some great barrier that can make or break a friendship. I used to think that distance could diminish love or importance, that essentially it was a mechanism of destruction. I thought that distance had some magical power to make people forget our friendship, forget me. I'm realizing that distance is in fact power-less.

God has blessed me with friendships like I've never known before. Friendships that thrive on so much more than proximity. In these friendships, I've realized that my love for people is not sufficient, and it shouldn't be. That's the great thing. By letting God's love be the dominant force in my friendships I've found that they are so much more meaningful. Before, I was loving people only with what I had to give. My own time, acts of service, or money. Never really interceding for them and trying to seek God's heart for them. I was just acting based on what I thought they needed. In those cases, when distance was put between a friend and me, the friendship failed miserably. I beat myself up for o long trying to figure out what I did wrong. Why I was a "forgettable friend." But it wasn't actually me or the distance that made the friendship fail. It was the way I was loving people that was making the friendships crash and burn.

I suddenly realized the problem: My love simply can't span distances like God's love can. His love is all encompassing. It's everywhere, all the time, in every season. Nothing can defeat it. Now, since I've let God's love take center stage in my friendships, I have confidence that nothing can crack the foundations I've built with people. Nothing. And that's a wonderful feeling.

5/12/10

Today I learned:
1) Distance is not a bad thing.
2) Human behavior is often based on our desire to be accepted socially or on our fear of what others think of us. (Maybe tomorrow I'll learn why...)

Cool story: A friend and I were desperately searching for change in my car today so we could go buy $1 ice creams at Hodgson's. We were about to give up when I decided to check my bat bag in the trunk. I found two dollar bills. Thanks Jesus.