Too Busy for Friends
Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
It seems that in this crazy, consumer-oriented world in which we live, we’re so busy working so hard to feed our spending habits, so that we can spend money on “stuff” … that many of us are struggling to find time to have friends.
It’s not unusual these days for people to decide to catch up say for lunch, and so we pull out our mobile phones to check our diaries, only to discover that the first time we’re all available at the same time, is in six or seven weeks. Hang on, what’s that all about? When did that happen? What ever happened to just dropping in on someone to say hi and enjoy a coffee together for half an hour?
We have so much crammed into our lives these days, that just catching up, more and more, is taking a back seat. It’s crazy. It just is. But more and more, we’re accepting this as the norm.
So many of us are living on this go-go-go treadmill … that we never take time out to stand back and say – come on, this is nuts! We never take the time to get our priorities right; to make catching up, having unhurried time to talk, getting to know each other, listening to each other’s stories; to make friendship … something important in our lives.
And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
We need others to encourage us into love and good deeds. We need people to sit down and listen to our stories and offer a word of advice here, a different perspective on something we’re struggling through there, a gentle nudge in this direction or that, a word of encouragement or admonishment as the case may be.
No man is an island, right? So why is it that, these days, it’s more important to have our faces buried in our smartphones, than looking up into the eyes of a friend? Why is that, huh?!
What I just read in that Scripture, what God just said to me is plain and simple. Do not neglect meeting together. Did you hear that too? A command from God. Do not neglect meeting together, but instead encourage one another, provoke each other to love and good deeds.
So here’s the challenge. Change just one thing in your life, so that once a week – just once – you genuinely connect with a friend. Maybe it’s for a coffee. Or over a BBQ or dinner or whatever.
Because you know what friends do, real friends? They lighten your load. They encourage you. That’s the way it was always meant to be.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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