Lent Day 23: Only one of you and only one of me

Think you're all alone? Too insignificant to make a difference? Ever ask yourself, "What can one person do, anyway?"

Rethink that assumption as you listen to this (click here). This one person with persistence and his gifting creates a sound experience not to be missed!

Some of  biggest eye-openers and influences come through people interacting in ones and twos. This past week, I interacted with:

1. Family: Mom and Dad came for a visit. I talked to Mom on the phone. Our kids came for lunch. Our granddaughter spent a day with us.
2. Friends: I just got back from tea with a dear looooong-term girlfriend who provided insights and advice. Within the past few days, I've talked to my WPPRs accountability group (four women, meeting for over 20 years). A friend and I watched her toddler and my grandchild play in the park.
3. Mentors: Several peer mentors directed my self-examination, helped me edit, suggested work possibilities, and opened the door for a board position.
4. Church: Two pastors in particular spoke into my life. (Sudden AHA, anyone?)
5. Acquaintances: The gal I walk with after exercise class taught me about Alabama and life as a live-in partner (vs. marriage).
6. People I've never met: Online and in books, the creativity in pictures and words inspires me. I love reading blogs and thinking about the sub-text (the unspoken agendas behind and under the photography, painting, and writing). Sometimes my readers respond with stimulating questions or life experiences, encouraging me to step forward in my own thinking. I LOVE hearing from you!

Who needs you? How will the world be changed because you woke up today and gave the day everything you had - your gifts, talents, education, friendship, skills, history, and more?

Whom do you need? Could you write out a list like mine above? To whom would you send a thank you note or email? Who has touched your life recently?

Read more:
*In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. He heard my voice. Psalm 18:6

*I pray to you, Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. Psalm 69:13 (NIV)

*Paul said, “To this day I have had help from God, and so I stand here, testifying to both small and great.” Acts 26:22

*Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2 NLT

Moravian Prayer: God, teach us to pray: to know the comfort and power that comes from open hearts. Move us to pray often this day: prayers of gratitude, petition, or praise. Meld our words with our actions, gentle God, so our very lives become a prayerful response to you.

We often call upon you, Lord, expecting easy solutions when what we need to recognize is your presence and strength. Thank you for trusting us to live one day at a time and for assuring us that we are never alone. Amen.

Lent Day 11: Best friends

What a happy day! Brides post their wedding pictures on FB after celebrating a princess day. Guys are usually slower to admit they had a great day; their friends also don't tag as many pictures. But you can see the expectation on the couple's faces. They have married their best friend and hope every day is as happy as their first together as wife and husband.

I have single friends who live with their good friends. When one or more of the gals (or guys) finds a mate or moves away, the person/s reconfigure their lives and living space. It's a mobile and shifting world out there for singles. But some remain best friends with former roommates, colleagues, and childhood acquaintances, through thick and thin.

Pastor Don Ross (Creekside Church, Shoreline) talked this weekend about the traits of good friends. (Well worth a listen: click here in a few days.) He said these three things - when reciprocated between friends - were good indicators of the quality of friendship:

1. Friends are consistent and dependable. 
2. They're honest and trustworthy.
3. They are willing to tell the whole truth, even if that may hurt their friendship ... because they care enough to tell the "last 10%" of difficult truth toward the maturity and wholeness of their friend.

I thought about the people I value most as friends. Even if I shock them with ideas or plans, they give me good feedback. They like me enough to be unwilling for me to move ahead without thinking things through. They bolster me because they know my gifts. They walk alongside to question me and cheer me on. I do the same for them, though it's not always easy.

The most challenging friendship-relationship may be with those closest to you. How about your spouse, the person who never leaves? S/he moves into your bedroom and becomes a neat freak so you have to clean up ... or is a total clutter-bug who messes up your space. You share the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living space with his or her expectations, hauled into your home from their past. Even after decades, s/he surprises you with good and awful truths about her/himself and you.

Sometimes we struggle emotionally when dealing with elderly friends or parents who need our care. Medication and aging may redefine their personalities and bring out the best (or the worst) in them. Are we still loving and kind? Good friends?

How do we negotiate the variety of friendships we encounter?

Our best friend - Jesus - is consistent, honest, and has our best interests at heart. That security helps us accept friendship, given, received, and shared.

Jesus' inner circle included those who knew who he was. And it included the man who betrayed him to his enemies. Jesus' extended circle of male and female friends benefited from his wisdom and insight. These people cried at his awful death. Rejoiced at his supernatural resurrection. He was a true friend to them all, offering grace, second chances, and his loving kindness without reservation.

I'd love to be that kind of person to my friends. Many of them are that to me. Thank you, friends!

Read more:
*The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Psalm 27:1

*And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Isaiah 35:8-10 NIV

*He guarded his people as the apple of his eye. Deuteronomy 32:10

*Christ says, "You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit.” John 15:16

Moravian Prayer: Why did you choose us, O Lord? What can we possibly do for you? Show us the place you have for us in your church, so we can together bear much good fruit to your glory. Amen.