Facebook, Friends, and Faith

This morning, while on Facebook on my computer I discovered, what some of you may have already discovered, that you can group your friends on there! I had NO idea! So now I have a "family" group and a "close friends" group. The family group was easy to comprise, I mean, family is family, but ahhh, what about those "close friends". Who do I assume are "close friends".

I started to really limit it, I mean Jason would have to be on there! After all, he is my bestest (I know that isn't a word, you English majors!), closest friend ever!  And though, while we were dating, I may have seen the world through the rose colored glasses of he's the only friend I need, now I'm a bit wiser. I've grow up. I've gotten married. I understand life bit more. I realize we need each other.

It seems that everywhere I've turned this week God has been trying to teach me something on friendship. Even a comedian we had while at a get-away this week shared with pastors and their wives how vital close friends are to them. He wanted to us to know how important it is for us to have those in our lives that we can be honest with, we can allow our weaknesses to be seen, those that will encourage us and point us to Him, someone that we would be willing to die for and know they'd do the same. Basically, who's gonna carry your coffin? Strangers or dear, precious friends?

Thinking on these things, I began to build my group. Would it be those that are just geographically close? Those that I talk to every week? Only those in a certain age category as myself (ugh)? :) Those that have only the same spiritual views as myself? Those optimistic, perky people or the ones with dread and doom on their statuses? Hmm.....

As I started adding folks, I realized a lot of the things above could be thrown out the window. The folks on there maybe as close as the neighborhood behind me, but there were also ones from Texas, Mississippi, as well as the uttermost parts of the earth! So no, geography doesn't really play a part in close friends. And those that I talk to every week? Nope, throw that one out to, because there are some, though we rarely talk to each other, is still very much a dear and precious part of my life. Age category? Ha!! Nope! Throw that one out too! I have older and younger, age really doesn't play a part in friendships. Now on to the same spiritual views as myself? I do believe these are very important factors in close friendships. How can one encourage me and pray for me (or me for them) if we don't agree here. I need those people in my life that will tell me, regardless of how I feel about myself, God still loves me. He waits with open arms to hold me. I want the ones that will always point me to Him and shine their lights on and for Him. The ones that can be very honest and give me a Bible verse that will slap me into reality at times and the ones that will grab my hand and pray with me in a moments notice. Oh yes, these friends I most definitely need!  Its the Aarons and Hurs (see Exodus 17:10-13) in our life, that will come beside us and hold us up. Those are the friends that topped my close friends list. The ones that are a part of my heart. Those who have endeared themselves to me.

I'm not sure if others can view your "close friends" list or not, but if you can view mine, and you know any of them, wow! You are blessed! Perhaps you are one of them, then know I am the blessed one indeed!!  Yes, I'm thankful to God for Facebook today and yet another reminder of His love and goodness on my life through friends and their encouragement as I grow in faith.

Yes Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with those we love, both near and far away. I'm reminded of the movie Beaches, where Hillary says, "Be sure to keep in touch, CC, okay?" to which CC replies, "Well sure, we're friends aren't we?"

Just LOVE!

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”    John 13:34-35

If you are like me and have grown up in church, you have heard that verse many, many times. I've always thought it was a good verse, you know, for Jesus to say. I mean, He's GOD! He's suppose to have these great loving thoughts toward everyone, right?

Well, I had a real "duh" moment this morning while doing my devotional.  I'm not sure if I ever realized the timing of which this was said.  I'm sure after decades of going to church it has been pointed out to me, but I didn't get it. I never fully comprehended it, I don't guess, until this morning.

We had the Lord's Supper yesterday morning at church and while some churches do that weekly, we do not. When we do have it then, it is a very special time, as was yesterday morning...especially enjoyed sharing in it with my son sitting beside me (even if he did think the unleavened bread tasted like paper!). 

This morning I was led to John 13 and the beginning of the chapter itself is humbling enough...that the God of the universe stooped to wash the feet of His disciples (His friends), even the feet of those who would run off soon to betray Him. That in itself is love. I've had my feet washed by another one time and it is truly a humbling experience!  I've also had them massaged after a long, trying day or when I've been laid up after a surgery. These two examples have shown me the love of God, how else in the world could you touch someone else's feet??!!!

Well Jesus had done this for His friends and had shared in the Last Supper with them and soon after the meal is when He shared these verses on love.  The thing that really hit me this morning was the fact that Judas Iscariot had just left them. He had ran off to begin the plan of betraying Jesus and Jesus KNEW that was what he was doing. And yet still told his disciples to "love one another" and He was one that practiced what He preached!

Has there ever been a more perfect picture of love?  I've often times thought of the love Jesus had to have had for Peter, James, and John just over the fact that at the time in His life He was most anguished, they couldn't even stay awake!  I mean, would that not tick you off just a little bit? Knowing what you were about to face and your three closest friends on earth could not even stay awake? Now, looking at these verses, and the timing of them being said, wow! Never has there been greater love!

As I sit here now, I ponder the fact if the disciples that heard these words straight from the mouth of Jesus, were they able to still love Judas? Did their hearts just break for this fellow disciple that turned his back on Jesus or did they look down on him and hate him for what he did? Did they mourn his suicide? I don't have those answers, I just wonder. 

I saw a quote the other day that said something to the effect of "People will come to Christ because they know Christians. People will reject Christ because they know Christians."  Sting!!!!  How true is that? Oh may this week of Easter bring out His love in us for each other. May the world be able to see Him through our love for one another. 

Does it really matter if someone took your pew? your parking place? Talks too much? Laughs too loud? Ignores you? yells at you? won't answer your text, your phone call, your email? Oh how we have gotten so petty about the little things! And by "we" I do mean "me" as well!!  Dear friends, I honestly feel the time of His coming is so very near and there are still so many that have not made a decision to accept Christ. May they look on our lives and desire to have that love that can only come from Him!!

Have a wonderfully blessed Easter week and allow the world around you to see His love in you!

"Toss! Toss! Hehehehehe!"

Jason treated me to the traveling Broadway show, "Wicked", this past weekend.  I have been to New York City probably 10 times since the show opened there, but I had never seen this particular musical.  I had heard rave reviews, but for some reason, had never seen it.  We had a grand time and it was quite a day!
The whole story is kind of the story around the "Wizard of Oz".  I never knew that the Wicked Witch was nothing more than someone who had been taken wrong her whole life.  She tried to do good, but others would belittle her or make fun of her; this can most definitely make one bitter.  One person would befriend her, Glinda, the Good Witch.
Glinda tried to make Elphaba (the wicked witch) into what she was, by teaching her how to "toss" her hair (thus the title of the blog) and laugh and to always find the good in things.  Though they started out as enemies, they ended up as friends and learned much from the other.  
My most favorite part of the show was when they sang "For Good" to each other.  If you have not heard it, here are the lyrics:

(Glinda): 
I've heard it said 
That people come into our lives for a reason 
Bringing something we must learn 
And we are led 
To those who help us most to grow 
If we let them 
And we help them in return 
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true 
But I know I'm who I am today 
Because I knew you... 

Like a comet pulled from orbit 
As it passes a sun 
Like a stream that meets a boulder 
Halfway through the wood 
Who can say if I've been changed for the better? 
But because I knew you 
I have been changed for good 

(Elphaba): 
It well may be 
That we will never meet again 
In this lifetime 
So let me say before we part 
So much of me 
Is made of what I learned from you 
You'll be with me 
Like a handprint on my heart 
And now whatever way our stories end 
I know you have re-written mine 
By being my friend... 

Like a ship blown from its mooring 
By a wind off the sea 
Like a seed dropped by a skybird 
In a distant wood 
Who can say if I've been changed for the better? 
But because I knew you 


[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/for-good-lyrics-wicked.html ]

(Glinda): 
Because I knew you 

(Both): 
I have been changed for good 

(Elphaba): 
And just to clear the air 
I ask forgiveness 
For the things I've done you blame me for 

(Glinda): 
But then, I guess we know 
There's blame to share 

(Both): 
And none of it seems to matter anymore 

(Glinda): 
Like a comet pulled from orbit 
As it passes a sun 
Like a stream that meets a boulder 
Halfway through the wood 

(Elphaba): 
Like a ship blown from its mooring 
By a wind off the sea 
Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood 

(Both): 
Who can say if I've been 
Changed for the better? 
I do believe I have been 
Changed for the better 

(Glinda): 
And because I knew you... 

(Elphaba): 
Because I knew you... 

(Both): 
Because I knew you... 
I have been changed for good...


As that was being sang, I could not help but to think back over the friends in my lifetime and see how the friendships with them have molded me and made me who I am today.  There are some, like Elphaba, who have had tragic happenings in their lives and then some like Glinda, who truly have had everything given to them on a silver platter.  Sometimes like Elphaba, we allow those tough times to make us bitter, and sometimes like Glinda, we fail to see the big picture, that there is far more to this world than "me".
Individually, I'm not sure Glinda and Elphaba would have learned so much.  I'm not sure if the writer of "Wicked" realizes this or not, but we were designed to do life together.  We learn from one another. We grow with one another.  I've traveled and shopped and laughed with friends.  I have sent some away from my house not knowing if I would ever see them again, but trusting God to hold them.  I've sat with friends in ICU waiting rooms, I've sat in hotel hallways and lobbies, cars in parking lots, hospital rooms, living rooms, bedrooms and funeral homes... we have shared life. We have cried on each other shoulders. We have prayed for and been prayed for.  We have depended on and been depended on.  We have taken the meals and have had the meals brought to us.  We have lived life together. We have worshiped our God together.  And together we have grown.  And I thank God for those friendships that grow closer because together we are seeking Him.  
"I do believe I have been 
Changed for the better 
Because I knew you... 
I have been changed for good."


I love you, dear friends, and thank God for the moments we have shared!

"Sista Friends"

"Big Apple Friends"

"Very special 'younger' friends" :)

"sweet friends"

"growing up friends"

"beach friends" 

"believe it or not friends!" :) 

amazing friends!

"encouraging friends"

"lifetime friends"