Your Inner Circle For 2008

They say that over a course of a lifetime that you really only maintain a handful of close friends. Yes, there are many friendships and acquaintances that are meaningful but there is an inner circle of friends that know us better than anyone else. You can lose contact with this inner circle for a period of time but amazingly enough when you meet again you seem to be able to pick up right where you left off. Some of us lose touch with that inner circle for long periods of time and have serious struggles trying to find folks to replace them or fill the gap.

Jesus had an inner circle. He hung out with a few of His disciples more often than some of the others. It's a natural progression in life. I've noticed over the years that when I try and share my heart outside that inner circle that often times people will mis-interpret what I am trying to say because they just don't know me well enough. We all struggle with this because life in America inevitably begins to consume our time with great financial responsibility. We expend a lot of energy maintaining what we accumulate. I don't see accumulating wealth as a bad thing but I do notice that often time that the loss of real relationships is the ultimate price that we all pay. Our families can only supply so much of this intimacy.

I actually see that having friendships outside the family actually help with the relationships that we have inside the family. We too often expect too much from mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, in-laws and out-laws and such. Jesus called us friends. He also said that no greater love exists like the love of friends that are willing to lay down their life for you. I really think the "laying down of our lives" is more about giving our daily life and time to our friends. Esteeming them above ourselves. If you read the Bible you will see that Jesus was always available to folks. He never minded being interrupted. He would drop everything for anyone who came to Him.

That is real friendship. We all know someone who will stop what they are doing to hear us out and unselfishly give us their time. We do the same for them also and that is the beauty of real friendship. My hope for 2008 is that all of you that read this blog and beyond would seek out your inner circle and that the real issues of life become a part of your time together. Obviously, a bad inner circle of friends can be dangerous and so I trust that we all seek out a healthy inner circle of friends. Friendship is defined by the Lord. He created friendship as a staple for our existence.

Consider this for 2008. Jesus first called us to be His friend. Start your inner circle with Him and include Him with your other friends. Jesus loves real friendship. He doesn't need a religious context for that. In fact, He avoided the religious when He paid us a visit the first time.

John 15:15

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.