Friends…How Many of Us Have Them?

Word History: A friend is a lover, literally. The relationship between Latin amīcus "friend" and amō "I love" is clear, as is the relationship between Greek philos "friend" and phileō "I love." In English, though, we have to go back a millennium before we see the verb related to friend. At that time, frēond, the Old English word for "friend," was simply the present participle of the verb frēon, "to love." The Germanic root behind this verb is frī-, which meant "to like, love, be friendly to." (Taken from www.dictionary.com.)

This concept of friend being synonymous to love makes sense. After all, we are commanded to “love” our neighbors as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18). Through the years I’ve been blessed with many friends: those people that have come into my life for a particular reason, a season, or a lifetime and have shown me the joys of human companionship and the comfort of shared experience.

What’s caught my attention lately is how the frequency with which you speak to a “friend” changes as you change and as God moves you to different places, both physically and spiritually, in your lives. For instance, I had several friends in college that I spoke to on a daily basis. It was easy for me to keep in touch with them because we lived in the same city, in the same dorm, were members of the same organizations, and had the same interests. I am still in touch with most of those friends, but we don’t talk nearly as much as we used to and, in some cases, are at different stages of our lives, causing us to be hard pressed to locate any “similarities” between our current selves. Observing this “cycle of friendship” in my life caused me to wonder…does it matter if, as a result of changed life circumstances, you no longer speak to some friends on a regular basis? Does that necessarily diminish your friendship? After all, if to be a friend is to love and love is a verb requiring action, can you truly call yourself a friend when you speak to someone less than five times a year?

I know for me that the frequency with which I speak to a friend does not diminish the love that I have for that person…regardless of how much physical time I am actually spending with that friend. Looking over my life I know that God has placed certain friends in my life during a particular season of my life so that God could fulfill His purpose for me in that season and, ultimately, so that He could mold me into who I am today and who He has determined I will be tomorrow (See Jeremiah 18:1-6).

So, to all my friends out there…those I speak to on a regular basis and those whom I don’t speak to hardly enough, I want you to know that I love you, you are in my prayers and my thoughts, and I am so appreciative that God has placed you in my life…even if our season of friendship has changed.