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Friends need to be available
As much as possible, friends need to be available to one another. It takes time to beat a path from one heart to another ‘ time spent laughing, talking, listening, and helping. But if we begin feeling that we must be there in every need, available in every crisis, we could use a reminder that there is only one Friend capable of that.
Once I was conducting an important meeting in my home when the phone rang. It was a friend urgently in need of a listening ear. Quietly I said, ‘I have a house full of people here right now, so I can’t talk, but you know that I care. I love you and I’ll call you back as soon as this meeting’s over.’
When I returned her call she said, ‘Thank you for taking time to say you care and to remind me of your love. You can’t know how much it meant to hear that at that moment. And thank you for saying you’d call back ‘ and then doing it. But a funny thing happened. When you weren’t available, I went to my knees and had a very precious time with the Lord. I’m OK now.’
What a wonderful reminder that, whether through us or around us, it is always and only our Lord who meets needs. He is there when we are and when we aren’t. How precious when he slips through the gate and down the path to a friend’s heart, quietly embracing needs in his arms of sufficiency.
Susan Lenzkes