Several months ago I had a falling out with a friend. I felt I was in the right, so did he. I was so set in the fact that I had been wronged that I didn’t initiate any contact, and we hadn’t talked much since then.
But today I had a realization: I miss that friendship. And it got me thinking about what had transpired.
As I thought through the whole process I decided to do a Google search for verses on friendship and I came across this verse, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted.” Proverbs 27:6a
I spent some time reading those few words, and I realized that there is something powerful implied in the words from Solomon. He didn’t feel the need to say that wounds from a friend exist. He didn’t give details about wounds he had experienced. He didn’t give a long story as to why he considered his friend’s actions wrong to begin with.
The fact was, the person was still a friend, and his friend was human. Which means wounds from a friend can be expected. So what both sides do next is what determines how deep the friendship goes.
We’re all human, and we’re all prone to mistakes and actions that hurt someone in our lives, whether we acknowledge the fault behind that behavior or not. Regardless of the past, the root of this friendship goes beyond recent memory.
I’m fallen, and so is everyone in my life. But God placed this friendship in my life many years ago, and as I heal from the hurt of the past I’ve remembered how the blessings of that friendship have benefited me far more than the hurt that happened this year.
A while back I wrote an article about a way I had hurt some very important friendships in the past. Am I not willing to give the same short-term memory to this friend that those friends gave to me?
Hurt is common. True friendships are not. And today I find myself very grateful for a friendship, which while not perfect, has helped me get to where I am today.
So this afternoon, I sent him a text. And I look forward to meeting up with him in a few days.
