I am Christ's friend (Part 2)

A Friend of God

I used to think that friendship with God was tame,

Kind of like having tea with a history professor in Boston on a late afternoon in September

When the sky is golden and the sun warm and the shade cool and the breeze gentle.

Or like a Saturday morning when you sleep in and finally awaken, stretch and yawn

And a buddy calls you up on the phone and asks if you want to play golf...and you smile.

I used to think that friendship with God was predictable,

That it meant spouses at war would always find a way to make it work

That illnesses would be over quickly and children would always come through in the end

That tears would always be for joy and pain could be avoided if you were a good boy

And churches were places where power struggles and politics were checked at the door.

But friendship with God is more like a conversation with Morpheus

And if you choose the blue pill you go back to sleep...and many do

And if you choose the red pill and follow Him, you see the truth...and it's scary.

Sometimes it's like a roller coaster ride in the dark with no restraint except His hand to put you back in when you fly out

And the enemy attacks viciously in the night but you learn how to stop his bullets in midair.

Friendship with God is certainly not tame and never predictable.

One day you're Frodo minding your own safe, comfortable, domesticated business

And the next day Gandalf knocks at the door and Black Riders are sniffing out your scent

And power tempts you to take control and so you must master it.

But the friendships you gather along the journey -- the Fellowship of the King -- are the best.

Sure there are times of rest when the fire crackles and the TV's on and the kids are home safe.

Quiet and solitude and peace and simplicity are what soldiers need sometimes.

But then the sirens wail again and you're whisked away with your Warrior-Friend

For some simple task or risky quest ---they're both the same to Him.

And tired and drained you collapse into bed awaiting...sometimes fearing...tomorrow's dragons.

Sometimes I think our church-problem is that we've swallowed both pills.

We want the fire but prefer it in the hearth rather than in the heart.

But friendship with God is wild, untamed and free.

It's getting swept up in the fierce joy of the King as He swirls into action.

It's secure, but not comfortable; intensely important but unpredictable; full of power, but never yours.

How can all this be, when life seems so mundane, so ordinary, so often tame...the same?

Where is this adventure, this quest, this friendship with a King  --  a Dragon-slayer?

The alarm sounds, but it's just my clock.  I go to work, I eat, I go to Starbucks for a break...

The call to friendship, to love, to arms is whispered on the wind to those with ears to hear.

He's been calling for you.  He's been calling for years.