Unafraid by Adam Hamilton

Author:Adam Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2018-03-13T04:00:00+00:00

THE AMAZING FAITH OF FRIENDS

In the Gospels we read about a paralyzed man who was carried on a stretcher by four friends in the hope that Jesus might pray for him. Interestingly, neither account of the story (Matthew 9, Mark 2) mentions that the paralyzed man asked for help. But clearly his friends cared enough to make sure he got in front of the healer from Nazareth. Because of their faith, Jesus said—not the man’s faith, but that of his friends—the man was healed. We all need friends like that. At Resurrection, we call them “stretcher bearers.” Stretcher bearers are the handful of people who love you so much they will be there for you, carry you when you can’t walk, and stand with you through thick and thin. But in some ways, though it sounds trite or cliché, the only way to have a friend (or stretcher bearer) is to be one.

This is what church is supposed to look like: not just people worshipping together, but people in relationships who are volunteering together, growing together, studying together, and playing together—doing life together in a vibrant web of community. In a very real sense, the entire New Testament can be read as an instruction manual for how to live together in Christian community.

I agree with those existentialist philosophers who have described loneliness as a fundamental part of the human condition. But I don’t think they should stop there. You and I are meant for relationships with others. As a Christian, I believe that our loneliness is not only a yearning for friendship with others but also a yearning for God’s love and a daily, deep relationship with him. Perhaps you’ve heard Saint Augustine’s prayer and affirmation of faith: “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” The deep longing in our hearts is in part a longing for companionship with God.

This idea of friendship or companionship with God is not some esoteric state achieved only by the great mystics. On multiple occasions in scripture ordinary people are described as “friends” of God. Abraham is called the friend of God in scripture,*11 and Exodus 33:11 says that God spoke to Moses as a man speaks to a friend. The Psalms reflect the deep relationship God’s people might have with God. And, just before his own death, Jesus said to his disciples, “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends” (John 15:15).

Joseph Scriven famously captured the promise of friendship with God through Jesus in a poem he wrote in 1855, which later became the well-loved gospel hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” I love the third verse, in particular:

Are we weak and heavy-laden,

Cumbered with a load of care?

Precious Savior, still our refuge—

Take it to the Lord in prayer;

Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?

Take it to the Lord in prayer;

In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,

Thou wilt find a solace there.

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