What’s A Friend For - Bob Reccord
by:Bob Reccord
Challenges, discouragements and difficulties are equal opportunity aspects of all of our lives. They make no discrimination as to who they attack or whose life they attempt to undermine. They are something we all wish we could avoid at all costs, but which seem too often come with significant “costs” to our lives…and usually at the most inconvenient of times. And often they involve people…people with whom we live, work, are related to or with whom we share a meaningful shared experience (like church, a ministry, or a social club/organization). People can disappoint us, betray us, undermine us, or abandon us and we can’t simply take the posture of “the more I know people, the more I love my dog!”
You’ve probably been there before. I know I have…and not too long ago. And that’s when you really find out who your friends really are. As one modern leader in the midst of heart ache declared, “You don’t know who you friends are when you are on top of the world. You know who they really are when the world is on top of you.”
A while back when going through a very trying time, watching people too often distance themselves, I found myself in a particularly lonely place. It was then that a friend who I had known for years stepped to the forefront and stepped up in a huge way for me. When I asked him what motivated him to do it, I’ll never forget his answer: “Bob, a friend is someone who, when every one else is walking out, walks in…pull up a chair and says How are we going to get through this…together?”
So who is a friend like that to you? Just as importantly, are you a friend like that?