You've Got a Friend

A medical emergency for my friend/mentor/confidante/sister in Christ held the potential to disrupt our decades-old friendship this month. The cyclone of emotions (and an upcoming speaking engagement on Kindred Hearts) made me nostalgic and pensive about the subject of friendship.

You and I both know several Bible characters who could have used a friend.

Eve needed someone she trusted to tell it to her straight when she eyed the forbidden fruit. “Girlfriend, don’t go there! It is so not worth it! And if you don’t think a whole world full of women with morning sickness and labor pains isn’t enough of a deterrent to disobeying God, well…”

Abraham’s wife Sarah could have used a friend…someone to help her feel better about herself when the whole neighborhood stared and pointed at her 90-year-old protruding belly…someone who would say, “Sarah, darlin’, if you wear the kaftan with those vertical stripes and lean over your walker a little farther, no one will even know you’re pregnant.”

Judge Deborah could have used a friend to help her climb into her armor for all those wars in which she led the troops into battle, someone who would whisper in her ear, “Honey, don’t worry about it. The label must be wrong. This can’t possibly be an extra-large.”

Abigail could have used a good listening ear when her husband was running for Idiot of the Year. (He won, by a landslide).

And don’t you think the Proverbs 31 woman could have benefited from having someone tell her, “Give it a rest, girl. No one loves an overachiever.”

Don’t get me started on the woman from the New Testament who had an “issue of blood” for twelve years. Puullleeeeaaaase. I’ve been in pre-menopause since the Reagan administration.