Encircled By Friends

Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash

 

An excerpt from my article on friendship in The Redbud Post. 

We were in a heavy conversation about career frustrations and disappointment and the way life’s planned path sometimes jumps the rails. My son was expressing pent up feelings about his financial situation and its impact on starting a family with his wife. But during the talk, he suddenly pulled out his phone and scrolled through his pictures to show us one of his friends. After finding what he was looking for, he turned the phone in our direction and pointed to a photo depicting his friend standing in a group of about eight young men posing by a couch at someone’s lake home where they had escaped for a guy’s weekend.

“These are my best friends,” he said, referring to the group of millennial guys who do life together, even meeting regularly as a group to process life and faith.

“These are your best friends?” I asked, and he nodded. “You have this many best friends?” He nodded. “Oh, my son, you are so much richer than most people.” Thinking about the angst we were discussing moments ago, I suggested he hang a hard copy of the picture on his refrigerator. “Whenever you look at it, remember you possess a gift many, many lonely people long for in life and never receive.”

Continue reading HERE.