When Life Keeps You Up At Night

This is the title of our sermon series right now at FUMC. Here I am at 1am wide awake! Hmmm maybe Bruce's word are relevant to me?! :)

Sometimes life keeps us up for good reasons. I find that I do some of my best thinking, find the best solutions, and oddly have the most creativity at this time.

I've been doing a lot of searching lately on what it means to be a good friend. I believe friendship is one of the hardest things to find, maintain, and keep. Life gets busy. People move in different directions. They meet new people. You meet new people. We are not available as much as we used to be or as much as we'd like.

There is a popular email/forward that gets passed around quite frequently and my eyes have seen it a lot. It talks about people being in your life for a season, reason, and a life time. Then you pass it on and in 5 days your wish will come true! (Ha! Do people really believe that? I would like to have a deeper faith than that!)

I agree with that to an extent. Friendship takes work! You're not "tied" or "committed" to a friend like you would be a spouse with public vows and a ring! All to prove my point even more! There is nothing that says you have to maintain a friendship. I believe every friendship is by choice. We control whether a person is in our life for a reason, season, or a lifetime. We pick which we want to invest time into for a lifetime. We do go different paths and things change...but with enough work...they don't have to be a reason or a season. Some may not agree, but give this idea a chance.

When we see our friends going through painful situations (just as Bruce preached on Sunday!), we just don't know what to do. Sometimes the best thing to do is be their friend. Stay by their side...through it all...even when it is rough. Jesus does this for us. I strive everyday to do as he did (LONG ways to go!). Even the stuff that is hard! We can't pick for ourselves which traits of Jesus we want to do. We have to try for it all. It is a never-ending walk that I wouldn't trade for the world!

At the end of each message, we've watched people from our congregation go to the alter and "be still". People with all different walks of life and different ages have gone forth. Two weeks ago we sang "It Is Well". I teared up watching the 70 something year old lady behind me make her way to the alter. I teared up watching people I knew kneel as we, the congregation, continued singing the soul-saving words. My heart ached for them without even knowing their story or current situation.

When life keeps me up at night, I am thankful for the friends and people I have in life. People to experience this wild ride of life with. I am thankful to share laughs, tears, sorrows, struggles, fears, curiosities, memories, accomplishments, dreams, joys, embarrassments, insecurities, securities, and prayers with...the people that I love and am committed to.

Funniest moment of the day: Eating at Metro. with Amy and Daryl. They both asked for a straw and I joined the crowd by also telling the waitress that "we suck". Good thing she had a sense of humor.
Blessing of the day: Friendship.
Prayer of the day: All those who need to "be still"
Song of the day: "By Your Side" by Tenth Avenue North

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdjRmM0Q0qs