Wise words: In conversation a person said to me in a very thoughtful way, “I’m starting to see friendship differently. It is about being there and doing for others.” Indeed, friendship is defined by our willingness to “lay down our lives” for others – our time, our preferences, our demands, our needs for attention, etc. Jesus said there is no greater love than to “lay down one’s life for another”. I don’t think he was talking only about the literal, physical, to-the-death kind of “laying down” (although Jesus himself was willing to make the point to us by doing exactly that!) Anytime we make a personal sacrifice of our own desires to be there for someone else, we are “laying down our lives.” God will give us all the time and resources we need to “take our own lives up again.” What measure of love am I prepared to give for others? How much of a Friend am I to the Lord, that I will set aside my desires for the sake of God’s desires?
