I pledge my loyalty, my perspicacity and, dare I say it, my friendship.

I had a run with a friend today*. When I looked at how slow we ran it reminded me of an idea for a post that had been kicking around in my head. Friendship is honestly something I think about a lot lately. I'm learning a lot about different types of friendships in different stages of life and different countries for that matter.

I digress-the point is, the person that I run with once a week is MUCH faster than me. She recently ran a half marathon and she would run with me on her recovery run training days. Since then she is not yet doing a training plan but she ran with me today after I had taken a few week break. She is so generous to slow down to keep pace with me. I know it isn't so easy to run so slow as I do. I'm not being self-deprecating, I really am slow. It seemed like such a beautiful metaphor for friendship. And I believe the way that Christ wants us to love each other.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9:

¹⁹ Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews.To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ²¹ To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³ I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶ Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. ²⁷ No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Serendipitously, this verse that came to my mind (the first paragraph) is actually followed by a running metaphor. To show to friendship (and love) to those in our lives we meet them where they are. Sometimes friendship is super fun and means having a book club and going out for drinks together. Other times it's running slowly so you can run with a friend. Occasionally it's even this:

Here I am washing a friend's windows as we prepped her apartment for her to move out. In fact I spent quite a bit of time helping this friend move furniture and clean house all so that she could move away. It was a bit heartbreaking. I had really enjoyed our friendship (and our kids friendship with each other) and it was hard to say goodbye. Honestly, people move a lot more often here than what I am used to. There are a lot of international students and post-doctoral researchers at the University here, so it is quite common for people to live here for a year, or a few years and then move on (we are likely to be in that category ourselves) I'm not complaining, just reflecting. I am not going to stop helping a friend because they are moving away because love asks me to be patient, kind, and gentle. Sometimes we get to be there for the fun stuff, sometimes we have to be there for the hard stuff, and sometimes we are even in for the boring stuff.

I know this post hearkens back to my "Walls" post from last year, but I hope it presents some new aspects of friendship I've considered and that it reflects some growth in me.

*Okay, I wrote this a few days ago and didn't publish, so technically it wasn't today.

References: title quote from Futurama S07E08
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