True Friend

I am not sure if I even should touch this issue, sensitive to me and to many, I believe. Devaluation of important terms and words - like love, friendship, holiness, faithfulness, truth etc. in our world has become so excessive, that the very topic of this post may cause confusion and dispute as each and every one has his or her own idea what it means to have true friend or what it means to be a true friend of someone else...Even here, in Tanzania, wherever you go, you will hear people calling you 'rafiki' (a friend)...though they have never met you before!

What have we done with the sacred word one finds in the Holy Scripture, that fits, I suspect, not that many people in our times, to be honest? Jesus used Himself this word in a bitter sense addressing Judas as a friend  in the Gethsemane on the night of His betrayal by the kiss of someone who betrayed first the sacredness of the noble title 'a friend of Jesus'...

Just to share with you a few simple thought and beliefs I hold dear to my heart in regards to this topic... My own idea of true friendship has developed and matured, I hope, in the span of past years of my life, through wonderful memories of true friends (though very very few) and through painful betrayals of those whom I considered once and cherished as my true friends... In my opinion at this point of my life, to have a true friend is one of the few greatest gifts, if not the greatest, of all one can ask from God. My understanding of a true friend is based mainly on two biblical quotes. One is from the Book of Sirach and describes the meaning of a true friend in biblical sense:

"A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds." (Sir 6:14-16)

The second comes from Jesus Himself: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you." (John 15:13-14) This quote describes what are the qualities I should have to be considered a true friend for someone else...

We hear so many times people complaining that they feel alone, they have no friends, or that their friends, once considered true friends, turned out to be traitors or just fair-weather friends... But! Does anyone of us ask herself or himself, if I deserve to have true friends? Who am I myself? What quality a person am I? How many times have I betrayed my friends in times of trial when they needed me most? Am I ready and mature enough to be a true friend to someone else? To stand firm for someone? To help someone to be a better person, a better child of God, faithful more and more to Him, and helping her or him to make wise decisions based on properly formed Christian conscience and according to God's will? And - have I ever considered the thought of laying down my own life for those I call my friends - as a viable thought, reality that I am capable of doing so, or just a fantasy, metaphor, an idea that will never happen or will never be on my agenda ever?

The older I grow, the longer I live, the more I cherish those whom I consider as my friends... I want more and more and I pray for this, that I may prove myself to be their true friend... while dreaming that one or few of them may become also my true friends... It is such a blessing to have God sent true friend...

Lord, I do not know if I ever become a true friend for someone else. It is You who are capable of making me one... Please, make me one for those You have given me in my life... and if the time for ultimate proof of true friendship comes... to be worthy to prove that I am the one by showing the greatest love without hesitation...