For the past 1 week, i have had the luxury of actually regularly checking out Fb and news portals online. I read 2 books, including one on King David which had been lying around on my table since the last book sale - that's like since Aug 2011, leaving only 2 remaining books on Joseph and Jesus to finish off the pile. And I finally put on my track shoes after umpteen years of telling myself i really should start exercising. A looong time ago, i was actually quite conscientious about getting up early morning to go round the small playground/park near my house.... well, at least for a short while. Then the lazy bones syndrome set in, and those early morning walks stopped. I still get up early to do my morning tingy with God, but the bed was much more inviting than outdoors. But deep inside, i knew i really should get going again; it just kept getting postponed... like they say, spirit is willing but flesh is weak. Until God sent me 2 people on the same day, to tell me look, you better move your legs now, while you still got legs to move (talk about being threatened!) .... Both of them apparently were 'forced' to exercise, one becoz she didn't want to waste all her money already paid to a personal trainer, the other becoz of Dr's orders. So I got the message loud and clear, it's now or never... and I thank God these 2 folks were the push i needed to get me going, even tho they themselves never realised the impact they had...
A dear sister in Christ asked me a rather odd question that made me ponder a long while - am i your fren? To some, such a question would be so... duh?? But it begs to be asked and answered in this day and age when some of us can claim to have 800, (i tink that's the last count when i checked out one of my kids' listing!) or even thousands of 'frens' all over the world... online Fb, Twitter, MSN or whatever latest new-fangled social network site there is out there in cyberspace. Honestly, i don't tink having 800 names in my address book qualifies them all as my 'frens'. And honestly too, I don't fancy clicking "add fren" on a name i have never heard before makes that person my fren, even tho he/she may be a fren of someone whose name i do know . Indeed if i am brutally honest, i tink it's more accurate and truthful to classify many of my 'frens' as more of acquaintances only. Not only that, i guess many of the people in my life even , be it church members, working colleagues, family/relatives aren't ''really'' frens the way i see it. Oh ya, of coz there's a relationship bond that ties us together through social intercourse, common participation in activities, group dynamics, etc etc; all the elements that fulfill psychological theories of human sociology. But frenship isn't a theory or a number.
To me, it's a...connection that's very individualistic and personal. So, who are "really, really" my frens?? Well, for a start, i can count them all on less than 1 hand. Aiyoh, so miserably few arr - poor thing?? I beg to differ... No, I am not poor in frens , I am very richly blessed by these few. I may not see them or contact them all the time or even often at all. But they are precious to me, they teach me lots of things they don't even realize themselves. I can tell them anything, everything or even nothing at all on occasion. I can bawl my eyes out in front of them and not bother wiping my nose. I can send them long lists of prayer requests and all they reply is Done, or they give me back their own long list! I can (sometimes) talk crap, and they will listen, and then they dare tell me quite to my face that i am talking crap! To the rare 1 or at most 2 exceptionally close frens, I can confess my innermost thots, dreams, fears, sins even. By the same token, all these that I can do to my frens, they can do likewise to me. Someone defined frenship as 2 hearts beating as 1... yep, its a heart thing that's up close and personal. As I thank God for my frens, above all, I remember this awesome truth with gratefulness - Jesus is my best fren...as the old hymn goes:
What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends...John 15:13
No comments:
Post a Comment