Friend

Let me start off by saying that this past weekend has been one for the history books. My college won our first game EVER. That's right. Second official season with a football team and we finally win a game in overtime.

This weekend was also the biggest weekend of the year at my school. It was our founder, Martha Berry's birthday and Berry College celebrates it BIG. We have Olympic games between all of the dorms and housings, we have talent shows, sports games, a Grand March up on Mountain Campus, picnics, and a carnival we like to call Marthapalooza. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. I woke up this morning with no voice and a headache like no other, but it was definitely worth it.

What I wanted to talk about tonight, though, is something that has been on my mind for a while. I haven't found a time when I really wanted to post about it, because other stuff ended up coming before it, but I feel that tonight is as good a time as any.

So, let's talk about friendships.

Yeah, I know it's a strange thing to talk about on a blog, but trust me, it's way more important than you realize.

Being a girl in college, I know that friendships are very important to keep and maintain. These people will most likely by your life long friends--people who will be there for your wedding, your children, everything that happens after college. I feel that I have definitely met some of those people while at Berry.

But I want to talk about what it means to be a Christian and how that plays into your friendships with others.

I have a good number of friends who are either atheist or part of another religion. And I'm completely cool with that. Those people are my friends and I wouldn't trade them for the world. I can talk to them about my problems and they can talk to me about theirs.

The trick is to not spout my beliefs on them every chance I get. I don't want to force people into Christianity. That's not what we're supposed to do. Jesus told us to love one another as we love ourselves. So, that's what I do.

I love on my friends. I support them, encourage them, listen to them, talk to them. I don't spite them for their beliefs. That would just make me a hypocrite and a liar. And I don't want to be either.

My pastor from back in my home town put in a great perspective. We don't have to love the sin, but we do have to love the person. I may not be particularly happy or supportive of my friends' beliefs in atheism or gay rights, but I do love on them and show them Christ's love through my friendship with them.

I'm not saying that all friendships will be easy going, though. I have people who have dropped me as their friend because of my beliefs before. And, yes, it hurts. A lot. But God carries me through the storms.

I've also had Christian friends drop me because of other reasons. Especially this summer, I had a few people who unfriended me on Facebook and Twitter and everything else. These were people whom I considered to be some of my very best friends throughout junior high and high school. It broke me to find out that they didn't want to be friends with me anymore, but obviously, God had reasoning behind it, so I let it happen.

No, I don't know what's going on with these people now. I don't see them and don't talk to them anymore. It hurts sometimes, yes. Somedays I find myself remembering all of the fun times we used to have in high school, and then I would realize that we just grew apart and didn't walk in the same circles anymore.

What I'm trying to say, is that friends will leave you. They will. But, God has a plan for all of us. He puts people in out lives for a reason and He takes them out for a reason. We may never know what that reason my be, but we do know that God's got this under control.

I also want to point out that while we love our friends, we must love our enemies as well. In Matthew, chapter 5, Christ tells us: "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

I have people who I would love to hate. Literally, would love to hate. And sometimes I let myself hate them. But then, I start to thaw out and realize that God would not want me to hate them. And I can't hate them.

I need to show people the love of Christ and to do that, I must love my enemies even when they do not love me.

I have a friend who, recently, I haven't been a good friend to. He and I ended up at odds against one another and the whole thing blew up. I found out he lied about a lot of things and I wasn't a very nice person to him about it. I shouldn't have said certain things to/about him, as I said them in anger, hurt and retaliation. He had told me he was struggling spiritually and I wasn't being thoughtful towards him about that. We aren't talking anymore, and as we used to be very good friends, it hurts me to have him dropped from my life like that.

Christ also tells us in Ephesians 4:26: "In your anger do not sin: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry."

Do not let anger cloud your judgement when in arguments with friends or enemies. Take a deep breath and think about what God would want you to do. Go back to the old school saying: WWJD. (What Would Jesus Do?)

Friendships are important to us as human beings. We are social creatures. We like to interact with others. As humans, we are built for other human contact.

So make friends. Enjoy life. Just remember that "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hat your enemy,' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." (Matthew 5:43-44).

In His love.