Posted by jonvon on October 13, 2001 at 15:22:36:
In Reply to: Durability, healing, value posted by Pastor Steven on October 12, 2001 at 10:30:31:
this is the kind of stuff i love on the board, where people honestly express the important stuff that is in their hearts, the things that touch them, the things that make them strong or weak, the things that make them who they are. part of the reason i love these words is that no one can argue with them, no one could find fault in them. its like that old expression which i'm going to totally paraphrase, it goes something like this [amplified version]:
lets say you have an idea or a philosophy or a religious belief of some kind. you might be able to persuade a man that your idea is superior to his if all you are talking about is ideas. but if a man has an experience that stands in obvious contradiction to your idea you can argue all day long but it won't help you to win him over. he has already experienced otherwise, and this experience is a very stubborn voice in his mind that will always appear more important that whatever it is you are saying. it is out of this strength, the strength of experience, these jewels that lie brightly in the heart, that this post arises.
i also love this post because there is something that is just plain good in steve's heart when it comes to his friends. i can't really begin to describe it, i just know that when steve treasures another person it is like he is looking at something beyond the person, into the depths of some blue within blue deep within deep water lying in some dark lake that when you stare into it you finally find stars at the bottom and you are somewhere else, somewhere you didn't think you were, somewhere beyond where you started. perhaps it is as simple as, when steve considers friendship he is considering the mystery that is grace. or something. like i said its hard to explain. but i always get this feeling like i get sometimes in the darkness that is christmas. the dark cold winter night framing the magical christmas tree kind of darkness. i feel like i could lay back into it and discover all the wild things in my heart, in the heart of the universe, in the bosom of God. there is a place i am led to that is good, even if for a brief moment, and in that moment i know that there is a thing called Love and also that there is a thing called Eternity and it is all very wonderful and i am glad to be alive.
thank you Steve. you bring much more than your share of magic into this world and i am very glad to have been around you to experience it.
: I'm in Kings X mode too. I get to see my old friend Doug tonight. It's hard to believe he's 50 now and I'm 46; we've been friends 24 years. Yikes! But many years, long distances, long separations, crises of faith, moral dilemmas, and even rejection by the church hasn't damaged our friendship.
: What is friendship? At the very least real friendship is amazingly durable.
: I talked to Suze M. last night for about an hour on the phone, and it was the best thing that happened all day. I really love her and I can't fully explain why (or maybe I just don't want to dull the magic by trying). But I feel like John Lee so beautifully expressed (with tears): "When I heard her singing, something inside of me was healed."
: Friendship heals. God uses friendship to recreate and restore something in us that would languish and die otherwise. At times it must be healed first, but afterwards it bears an incredible and mysterious power to heal everything else it touches.
: Bill wrote a post a few days ago that talked about me. I read his kind words with a sort of cautious disbelief. Someone inside me believed the things I read about myself, but someone else is ever actively showing me dirty pictures of myself. I loath what this one discovers to me. I hesitate to acknowledge the treasure in me from God, feeling that spiritual power and beauty should not be allowed to co-exist in the skeletal prison of such a stained soul as I. But it was the stains that Bill would not acknowlege.
: Friendship validates and embraces all that is good and beautiful and true in a friend. Friendship is the ultimate stain-remover. Friendship appraises the dirty, cracked artifact and values it a priceless treasure. Friendship sees through to the image of God in the creature, and like God, says that "it is good."
: This ability is the most God-like that we possess, touching the power in creation, in prophecy, in healing, in resurrection, in redemption.