The Surprise of Friendship

“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24 ESV)

I met my best friend (the one that’s not my wife) on the first day of Hermeneutics class in our freshman year of university. To give some context, I was rigid. I had a very driven view of what college was going to be like, how I would act and earn the highest grades possible by setting a strict bedtime, staying organized, and putting assignments over fun. Thank God I didn’t stay that way! That first day, I was essentially dressed for church, ready to impress the professor with my promptness and attention. About twenty minutes into the class, another freshman shuffles in, mumbles an apology, and takes the last seat in the front row. He’s clearly overslept, dressed in a hoody and jeans and a ball cap. His first move? The professor continues with the lecture, and the dude lays his head in his arms and falls back to sleep—in the front row! At the end of the class, he wakes up in time to stumble into Old Testament Survey behind me, more alert and apparently well-rested. A month later he was sick with a nasty cold, and as we’d had several surprisingly pleasant interactions since day one, I was further surprised when the Holy Spirit encouraged me to make a pharmacy run for him. From that point on, we were virtually inseparable. Two men growing in their faith and knowledge and battling together in the turbulent stress of higher education. Our relationship was not perfect. There was a time where we wounded one another deeply, and as I think on our friendship now, it is richer and deeper because of the trial we faced. It strengthened our bond to wrestle with our friendship and to forgive.

I wonder if Jesus ever thought about Peter this way. An uneducated fisherman, rough around the edges with a penchant for putting his foot in his mouth. I’m convinced Peter would have been the first to fall asleep in a college class and the first to mouth off to the teacher. He too, wounded Jesus deeply. And yet, through Jesus’ loving restoration, I believe whole-heartedly that their relationship shifted then, really transformed, for Peter. Suddenly, Jesus’ words, “No longer do I call you servants…I have called you friends,” ceased to become merely words. They were life. Jesus’ offer of deep fellowship—his pursuit of my friendship—brings me to tears.

Nick Scholl

For Reflection

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15 ESV)

• Think of a deep friendship of yours. What was the moment in which you knew the Lord intended something deeper for your relationship?
  

• How do you continue to cultivate that depth of friendship through the possible challenges all friendships face—passage of time, distance, shifts in life stages?
  

• Can you name one place in which Jesus is inviting you to a richer friendship with Him?