What a friend .....
I sometimes have go off after my morning practice and after reading the Purpose Driven Life just to digest ... OK sometimes to pull myself back together. I don't want this blog to become about making anyone or any belief ...wrong, so ... I ponder, wonder and just plain stew about some of this stuff. I think Einstein said, "We live in a friendly Universe,"and I tend to believe him based on MY experience ... So I figure God already is my friend. I've had friends before. I know that friendship requires some cultivation but when in the end my friendship rests on the secure foundation of my understanding that there is somebody who knows me, cares about me and always wants the best for me and so ... Days, months, years go by (I'm thinking of you right now, Yvon) and the constant ... My friend is there. Through 30 years my best friend and I have taught each other that no matter what you can count on me.
What I hear Rick Warren saying though is not that God wants to be my friend but that God wants me to be his friend and he is willing to drown me (the Noah story) banish me (the Eden story and burn me to a crisp (the Sodom story) and chase me across the centuries if I refuse his friendship. Sounds suspiciously like stalking to me.
I remember at 11 wanting Jerry Smith to be my friend. He was a star athlete ... So very cool and in Grade 8! And everybody wanted him to be their friend. Well ... I never got to have him as a friend but one day on the school yard he intervened when a group of older boys were bullying me and I can still to this day remember him picking me up and asking me if I was OK.
I never felt the need to worship him(OK maybe I did). I never felt the need to follow him around. I have no idea what became of him. His friendship and the memory of him has stayed with me all of my life. This morning as I write this I'm thinking of you Jerry ... I'm wishing you well ... I guess I'm praying for you. In this moment I'm in your presence. Jerry, you are just one more reminder that I DO live in a friendly Universe. I have cultivated a friendship with God my whole life and every time I've turned to look the friendly God has been there for me.
The question to ponder at the end of the chapter is .... What can I do today to remind myself that God is my friend? ... ... Remember the Jerry's and Yvon's of my life and expect to find them everywhere
What I hear Rick Warren saying though is not that God wants to be my friend but that God wants me to be his friend and he is willing to drown me (the Noah story) banish me (the Eden story and burn me to a crisp (the Sodom story) and chase me across the centuries if I refuse his friendship. Sounds suspiciously like stalking to me.
I remember at 11 wanting Jerry Smith to be my friend. He was a star athlete ... So very cool and in Grade 8! And everybody wanted him to be their friend. Well ... I never got to have him as a friend but one day on the school yard he intervened when a group of older boys were bullying me and I can still to this day remember him picking me up and asking me if I was OK.
I never felt the need to worship him(OK maybe I did). I never felt the need to follow him around. I have no idea what became of him. His friendship and the memory of him has stayed with me all of my life. This morning as I write this I'm thinking of you Jerry ... I'm wishing you well ... I guess I'm praying for you. In this moment I'm in your presence. Jerry, you are just one more reminder that I DO live in a friendly Universe. I have cultivated a friendship with God my whole life and every time I've turned to look the friendly God has been there for me.
The question to ponder at the end of the chapter is .... What can I do today to remind myself that God is my friend? ... ... Remember the Jerry's and Yvon's of my life and expect to find them everywhere
posted by Rev-T at 6:10 AM
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