I can’t seem to stop smiling after writing the title. Now, i’m crying.. I know very dramatic of me. I think in the Christian community we say this saying so much that it almost becomes this vague statement or phrase. Until, the most loneliest, heartbreaking or the most beautiful, brightest seasons come. If your like me and barely understood/understand this saying, let me explain it the best way that i can: Throughout the bible, Jesus is referred to as a friend, closer than a brother, the one who becomes everything when everything else is lost. And i think about every single person has dealt with that— losing everything/ losing the most important things or people. My question to you is, did you gain Jesus?
Now before we dive deeper, For the ones who don’t know Jesus, He’s this really really amazing and beautiful God that came to live a human life to die for your sins because He seen that there was nothing and no one to save you. You have to meet Him, He is absolutely to die for! (He’s madly in love with you.) Anyways, the thing about knowing Jesus as a friend is many people don’t get too. Because when they do have opportunities to know God as a friend, it turns into something different. Which, I totally understand. These opportunities are not always sitting down, having brunch with Jesus and chopping it up about the sun , the moon and the stars. Sometimes, it’s losing a job, losing a loved one, depression and anxiety, trauma…etc. I mean, you name it— He can be found in anything if you really open your eyes. Now, as much as i adore brunch with Jesus, i wouldn’t undo anything that i had to lose in order to gain Him. I don’t look back at all the grief and loss that had to occur in order for me to come before Him and see it through the lens of bitterness anymore. I didn’t always say that, Jesus had to wipe my lens a tad bit for me to see it the way i do now- and the way i see it now is the most beautiful time of my life. Yes, it was so much tears. It was full of grief and anger. Fear and trauma. Intense spiritual warfare. Loss and suffering, but what made it the most beautiful experience that i will ever have, is knowing Him as friend in all of it. Getting to meet, face to face this Jesus that everyone in the bible met. Getting to meet, face to face this Jesus that seems to be saving everyone and giving them incredible grace. I got to meet God where most people think God can’t be met. In sin. In brokeness. In grief. In heartbreak. In anger towards Him. But, in order for me to have seen Him as a friend it took a lot of courage. It took desperation and desire on my end. It took me being on my face everyday in prayer even when i didn’t want to face Him because the absolute mess that was happening all around me. What i realized througout the process of it all was that, His desire for me was to know Him as friend. His desire was for me to come to know His true character. How he feels towards me and what He thinks of me. What His intentions are and what He adores the most about me. Sitting with me and talking about the future and the past and what makes me laugh. Singing and dancing with Him — failing with Him, crying with Him and mourning the dreams and desires my heart wanted most. A true friend. And if i didn’t go through the most painful things i wouldn’t be able to say that i know the man on the cross. Not just know of Him but i mean —- i can say that i’ve met Him. I can say that He’s sat on my bed and talked with me for hours. I can say that when it was impossible to make me smile, He was the only one who could do the miracle of making me smile and dance.
If everything was always good and if everything always stayed you will never be able to experience the God who is always good no matter what changes and the God who neves leaves even when everything and everyone else does. I know it can be hard to find that in the midst of the pain and you don’t have too right now. Almost always you can only see it when you look back, not while your in it. The thing that you do have to do right now is.. have brunch with Him. Make your family dinner with Him. Clean your room with Him. Go to school and do homework with Him. Go for a walk with Him. Do the most mundane tasks with Him.. isn’t that how a friendship grows? Daily conversations, honesty, pure intentions, intimacy, quality time. And when life is hard, isn’t that the most important time to see who really is your partner in crime? Who’s going to be the ones who stick around even when you’ve got nothing to give?
My challenge to you: Set aside one hour of your day to do the most mundane, regular task of your day but with Jesus. How? Invite Him to join you. It’s as simple as that.
He longs for you to know Him as friend.
John 15:13-15 “For the greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all. And this great love is demonstrated when a person sacrifices his life for his friends. “You show that you are my intimate friends when you obey all that I command you. I have never called you ‘servants,’ because a master doesn’t confide in his servants, and servants don’t always understand what the master is doing. But I call you my most intimate and cherished friends, for I reveal to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father.”
brutalhonesty 