Encouragement

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My Beloved Friend,

It has been a long day for me, and now, here at the end, I am about to drink some tea and head for bed (again), but I wanted to take time out to share some thoughts with you. I have been thinking about friendship today, and what it really means, and what is truly a "friend". Most people that we deal with day to day, are not friends. Most people that we consider friends, are not friends. Not because people don't want to be friends, or do good to one another, but because of the singular lack of the ability - to be a friend.

Friendship, put simply, is love. Loving someone unconditionally, and completely. Not in the sense of that special love husband and wife share, but surely it is one of the basic, and important, foundations of that type of love. Friendship love is an easy flowing relationship, where you care for the other person's well-being. It is there in time of need and crisis. It sheds tears in times of grief and sparkles with laughter in times of joy. Friendship is an open heart that requires no token for passage. It simply is, love.

We as humans, have been hurt, betrayed and belittled. All have been, at some time in our lives, truly and deeply hurt. And without God's healing power, we strive to protect those painful places in our hearts. It is a true saying that "no one can hurt you like the ones you love" because the path to your heart is an open door to them. Eventually, the pain is so great, many of us just simply close the door....

So we love conditionally. Ever striving to filter the pain, control our relationships and steer the course of our lives. In so many ways we isolate ourselves and become so very alone. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, our loneliness, because we fear to let anyone in, for they might hurt us, once again. So it is difficult to find true friendship, as it is difficult to find true love. Our barriers forbid us to reach out and become vulnerable again. After all, life hurts.

But that is also our strength, not in the pain, but in the surmounting of it. When we make ourselves love unconditionally, unashamedly and truly and deeply, we tap the power of heaven. Then when the hurt comes, and we turn to God (which is the power), then that pain is healed. And even more, we can love that person more deeply than ever before, understanding that he or she, was also responding out of their pain.

Mother Teresa once said, "The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread."

I wish one thing of God, that is to love unconditionally. In this I know I will have the keys to heaven. I will become the best father, son, friend and husband that I could possibly be. Why? Because I will know how to love. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son...." and of course, "No greater love is there than this, that man should lay down his life for his friends...." This is the type of love that saved a world. Our world.

I offer this proverb:

"I stood upon the brink of everything, and wondered how I should go. Should I take the high road, or perhaps the low? Then I saw footprints set before me, and I marveled for I had not seen them there before. And I followed them to the crossing of the roads. One path was marked 'The way of plenty, pleasure and ease' and the other 'The way of love and trials and pain'. I stood puzzled, for I did not understand. Then a cool wind caressed my face and I turned to see one standing there radiantly clothed in light.

And a voice like sunshine, brightness and joy spoke to me saying, 'upon the path of plenty, pleasure and ease, you will find all that your mind can imagine, and all desires of the flesh fulfilled, and there every wish will be granted for your lifetime, but as in all things, it is only for a season'..... and I looked down and saw the footprints of the multitudes that had passed that way before me. Then the voice, soft in its' sweetness, came again, saying, 'upon the path of love you will face trials and pain, striving for a goal that yet you do not fully understand, and are unable to touch now, but on that path the rewards are eternal and shall never fade'.... and I looked down and saw the lone footprints of a single traveller that I had followed in my journey to this place.

There was a sense of expectancy that softly touched my spirit, and I knew that I was faced with a choice. So with a prayer in my heart, and a song in my soul.... I followed the footprints of love. His footprints."

May God grant you the desires of your heart and lead you upon a path full of brightness and joy. But most of all, my friend, may He grant you love. His love. An unconditional vibrant joyous love that fills your very soul. That is my prayer for you, and my hope. I send my love to you and yours, always.

Your Friend,

Jonathan

www.apointoffaith.com
www.sonovero.com
www.tcportal.org

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