In the past few months I have heard ONE thing that always strikes me and brings me to tears each time …because of the power and truthfulness in the words. I have heard such comments MANY, MANY times, from MANY, MANY different people and just a few nights ago seating at the Dinner with Jon and Kristi, Soraya said to us, “You and Jon (Jonathan Dampf) have the type of friendship any Christian guy would love to have, but cannot find.” And just 3 weeks prior to that a friend said, “Bro, you don’t even know; you and Shawn (Shawn Laser) have the type of bromance that other people are jealous for, I can’t even find that type friendship.”
People who personally know us can testify to the fact that Jon and Shawn are not only my accountability or brothers, but are also friends who help bring me closer to Jesus Christ.
I never planned to have a friendship with either of these two guys, but God knew just what I needed, and after a few months of prayer and not giving up, God was faithful enough to answer at the right moment in my life. But FRIENDSHIP came at a cost. 1 Corinthians 15:33 “Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” I had to let go of bad friendships that didn’t have good fruits in my life. I had to turn away from such people and understand that if I was going to follow Christ, I had to stop connecting myself with people who bear no fruits and realize that removing unhealthy people out of my life makes room for better ones. This was the main part of my accountability to stay so focus on God that I didn’t have to look back at my past, because the future holds so much greater stuff. Even the best is yet to come. C. W. Lewis once wrote “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” | "I had to let go of bad friendships that didn’t have good fruits in my life. I had to turn away from such people and understand that if I was going to follow Christ, I had to stop connecting myself with people who bear no fruits and realize that removing unhealthy people out of my life makes room for better ones." |
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! - Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
I’ll end with this; When God takes a look at your life, what does He sees? When you fall, who do you call? When you need prayer, who is there for you? When you’re being tempted, who is up praying and battling for you in the Spirit on your behalf? If you find yourself trapped in the past and you could only call on one friend to come and pull you out, besides Jesus, who else would you, call? I know that for me, I can call on these two guys, and in a heartbeat they will drop a baby to answer the call as I too would always do for them. I honor and respect them and I’m sure that if you were to ask them what they taught about me, they would echo every word written on this blog.
Be careful who you call your friends. I'd rather have four quarters than 100 pennies.
"A simple guy living a BOLD life for Christ" -Francisco Nelson