Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday October 31, 2006

Today I have yet another piece on friendship. I have enjoyed writing these articles and I hope they help you in strengthening your commitment to your friends. If they in turn strengthen theirs toward you, then, wow, we have a double winner.

I listened as my friend Dr. Tom Hall talked with another friend, Roy Tremble, Sunday past over dinner. We were in a nice restaurant and the fellowship was good. Each man mentioned to the other how God had used a friend during a time of extreme trouble in each man's life. A change in voice tone, just slightly noticeable, indicated a change from small talk to an almost devotional nuance and I thought I noticed a tremendous effort on pastor Hall's part to hold back a tear when the name of Dr. Ron Shaeffer? was mentioned.

Ron is going through his dark valley, and though I remained silent, I almost shouted when Dr. Hall mentioned he had driven a long distance to have lunch with Ron and just “be there" for him. Most folks need more friendships of this sort.

A lesson that I have learned over the span of my life is the true sense of deep satisfaction that comes over me when I am able to honestly say concerning someone who has passed is that I have been this person's friend through thick and thin. I also admit to a painful sense of shame when I own to having been less than the friend who loved at all times.

The two above mentioned emotions, one of satisfaction and one of shame helps me to balance the terrible feeling of being kicked in the stomach by a Clydesdale when a friend betrays or in otherwise lets me down. To think that I have caused the same feeling is humbling beyond description.

Early American author James Fennimore Cooper, best known for his "Last Of The Mohicans" also wrote something that should enshrine him in the "Friends Hall Of Fame" when he wrote:

"Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity, as the water that flows from the spring cannot congeal in winter."

It is good to see the warm spring of friendship continue to flow when a friend is going through it, rather than the withdrawal and 'wait and see' attitude of most.

I often quote Arnold Toynbee, the British historian who wrote: "I have observed that when it gets the darkest, the stars come out."

I would like to add for my personal intention toward my friends, "When it gets the darkest in the life of my friends, the stars come out and so does Larry."

This is very easy to write.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2006 Use with credit.

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