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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

When it Just Clicks - Spiritual Friendships

There are times in life when you meet someone and you just click with them.  It can even happen that you see someone new and know right away there is a connection.  I can't put it into words, but it has happened to me in the past and I believe it happens for a reason. One of the times this happened to me is when I met my dear friend Alisha.

I graduated from high school with an awesome group of friends and had a few close ones that really got me.  However I had only just scratched the surface of amazing friends God was going to bring into my life.  In January 2002 I traveled across the globe to New Zealand to attend Capernwray Bible School and my first day in New Zealand I met Alisha.  After over 30 hours of travel I arrived at a hostel and met three girls who were also going to Capernwray.  Alisha was one of them.  They were on their way out to the mall and invited me to come along.  I decided to go.  Somehow Alisha and I struck up a conversation and it has been going ever since.
What happened that day over 8 years ago was God brought me a spiritual sister - someone who spoke my language and was on my "wavelength".  Over McDonalds fries and burgers, in a food court in Auckland, NZ we forged a new friendship.  At first we thought each other was "alright" and didn't really understand the connection we had.  But a week or so later, we realized that we had just met our best friend.
I tell this story because I really believe that God wants to bless us with spiritual brothers and sisters (brothers for brothers, and sisters for sisters...), and sometimes He waits even until after high school to do it.  We need to be on the look out for these people.  They are people who we may not have everything in common with, but somehow they just click with us.  They are people who are interested not only in our lives as they are now, but in God's calling and destiny for our future as well.

Amanda, another spiritual sister of mine taught me that God brings people into our lives for "a reason, a season or a lifetime".  This is another lesson that I've learned over the years...not every good friend is going to be for "a lifetime" and that's okay.  Sometimes we'll be close to someone for just a season of life.  This often happened to me when I worked at summer camps.  One summer I was so close with a few girls and the next summer there were new people I became attached to.  And though I still love each one of them, few of them are my closest friends today.  It has brought me a lot of freedom to allow friendships to serve different purposes in my life and let go of them when that purpose has been accomplished.
Who are your spiritual brothers and sisters?
Who is in your life for a reason? a season? a lifetime?
Take some time today and tell those people how grateful your are for them.
If you feel you haven't met that friend yet, pray and ask God to bring that person along that you click with.  He wants to bless you in this way.

Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like that 'A reason, a season or a lifetime'. I've often thought that but haven't heard it put so well. Thanks for posting it!

Jennifer Smith said...

God brings people into our lives for "a reason, a season or a lifetime". Thank Amanda for teaching you that!

Wow, Heather. Thanks for sharing! You have no idea how much I needed to hear that..and although Im still uneasy about, the Lord is working with me to understand. Its hard to see friends go. I totally know what you mean with camp friendships. Blessings.