We naturally gravitate to five-step plans or self-help advice to bring about change in our own lives. But Kelly Needham reminds us that lasting transformation comes not as we follow a to-do list, but as we walk with a Person.
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What can we do in this time of isolation? Of course we should still strive to do life together, even if that means through Zoom, FaceTime, texting, phone calls, and letters. None of us can make it through this alone! But I think there is more we can do. This quarantine is giving us time to do two things that will greatly strengthen our communities.
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Numbers is truly one of my favorite books of the Bible and I always get excited as I finish up Leviticus and turn to those opening lines, “Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai…” Sure, it opens with lots of… you guessed it… numbers. But this book is action-packed and full of key events in Israel’s history.
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At the heart of the Christmas story are two pregnant women: Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist and Mary who is pregnant with Jesus. But this is no fairy tale for these women. They never got their “designer lives,” the lives they had hoped and planned for themselves.
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How does the gospel inform our friendships? What is friendship according to Christ? While the Bible doesn’t speak as directly to friendship as it does to marriage and family, that doesn’t mean it has nothing to say.
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If I asked you to list some signs of healthy friendship, I doubt you’d name conflict as one of them. Most of us treat conflict like an uncomfortable relative, something we have to deal with every now and then but, generally, to be avoided at all costs. But, in my experience, conflict is not an ugly stepsister to be avoided but a necessary ally in our pursuit of real friendship.
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Not every adopted child will grieve the loss of their biological family the same way, but every adopted child will feel this loss. And it doesn’t serve them well for us to ignore that reality.
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Hope creates tension. It inserts a longing for a future reality that is totally secure but not yet accessible. Because our hope is not yet realized.
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Rebuke stings. But it also corrects and redirects, and we’re right to respond wisely.
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My hope for this book is to recast the glorious vision for Christian friendship while reminding people that our friendships must take a backseat to our relationship to God. Only then will our community with one another truly flourish. And only then are we prepared to be witnesses to the world in an era where friendship is the new family.
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