{"id":13787,"date":"2015-05-03T17:30:16","date_gmt":"2015-05-03T22:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/?p=13787"},"modified":"2015-05-08T21:55:45","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T02:55:45","slug":"friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/03\/friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Wouldn’t you like to get away?\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Sometimes you want to go\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
Where everybody knows your name,\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/i>and they’re always glad you came.\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
You wanna be where you can see,\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
our troubles are all the same<\/div>\n
You wanna be where everybody knows<\/div>\n
Your name.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
You wanna go where people know,\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n

people are all the same,\u00a0<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

You wanna go where everybody knows\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
your name.<\/div>\n

source:\u00a0http:\/\/www.lyricsondemand.com\/tvthemes\/cheerslyrics.html<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Those are the lyrics to the theme song from the T.V. show “Cheers”. \u00a0The lyrics speak to our common longing. We want to be known, we want someone to know who we are. \u00a0We all want friends. \u00a0And yet, in our culture today friends, real friends, are hard to find and even harder to define.<\/p>\n

Today I had lunch with one of the guys from our church. \u00a0He welcomed me with this question and a troubled frown, “Do you consider us friends or just\u00a0acquaintances?” \u00a0That beginning didn’t bode well for the visit to follow. \u00a0The reason for his question was the awareness that he really doesn’t have many friends and was I one of them?<\/p>\n

Friends are rare. \u00a0Real friends that is. \u00a0It takes years to get to know someone and often longer to really trust them. \u00a0Chuck Swindoll said, “If you have eight men at your funeral who don’t look at their watches you had a good life.” \u00a0Isn’t it sad that most of us have so few we connect with, even fewer who know us and care about us.<\/p>\n

In the last two weeks I have visited with several of our men and in the visit asked them, “So, do \u00a0you have any friends?” \u00a0Both answered, to my amazement, “No”. \u00a0How sad that we live in a culture surrounded by others and no one knows us, no one cares. \u00a0How have we let this happen? \u00a0Why are we so fearful of the emotional intimacy a friend would offer?<\/p>\n

It’s even worse for our young adults. \u00a0They have grown up with electronics between themselves and others. \u00a0Many have thousands as “friends” on Facebook, but know no one personally! \u00a0It’s a tragedy that is beginning to reveal itself in the suicides of lonely people with thousands of “friends” who have never met them.<\/p>\n

So how do we move from this loneliness to relationship? How do we connect in a way that bridges the chasm we feel between us and others? \u00a0And, even more important, what is a “friend” anyway? \u00a0That question was one we asked our waiter today as my friend and I discussed our relationship. \u00a0Even our young waiter didn’t really know.<\/p>\n

Here’s a project for you to work on, an assignment if you wish: \u00a0Write down on a piece of paper five names of people you consider friends. \u00a0Then, call them. Talk to them. Tell them how important their friendship is in your life. \u00a0No, you can’t text them or send them a note on Facebook. \u00a0That’s missing the point entirely. \u00a0You have to talk to them. Really talk to them…and even better…meet them for a meal. \u00a0It will make a difference in your life you never imagined. \u00a0It will refresh your soul and brighten your day!<\/p>\n

Visit Mike at Finishing Well<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.\u00a0 Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.\u00a0 Wouldn’t you like to get away?\u00a0 Sometimes you want to go\u00a0 Where everybody knows your name,\u00a0 and they’re always glad you came.\u00a0 You wanna be where you can see,\u00a0 our troubles are … <\/p>\n

Read more “Friends”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6977,25],"tags":[2055,5556,7089,207,907],"class_list":["post-13787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-mike","tag-cheers","tag-chuck-swindoll","tag-featured","tag-friends","tag-lyrics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}