The prayer of friendship

Last night, several friends from NET took me out to Junior’s in Times Square to celebrate my new job.  It was a wonderful night, and reminded me of something I scribbled down several years ago:

“Friendship is, at its best, a prayer.

It is, after all, an act of faith. It is sacred. It is an epistle, delivered from one person to another. In its best moments, friendship is a canticle that celebrates, a parable that teaches. In the close proximity of a friend, you find a cathedral where promises are kept, and a chapel where tears are shed. Friendship is a responsorial psalm: one heart speaks, another responds, and in the silences in between we hear something of God.

Jesus—no stranger to friendship, or to its swift reversal, betrayal—said that wherever two or more are gathered in his name, there he is, too.

Perhaps when we seek a friend, we are seeking God, the God who dwells in all of us, the God in whose image we have all been made. Perhaps in friendship he is there, waiting to be found, the God of laughter and companionship, the God of shared secrets and long stories and strong coffee, the God who is comfortable just kicking back. He is there to listen, because that’s what friends are for. He is there to guide us on the journey, to see that we are not alone and that there is someone with us who can read the map. He is there to help us find faith in one another, at moments when that particular faith may be all that we have. He is there to let us know that someone else understands our pain, shares our joy and, thankfully, gets our jokes.

Out of that, we are encouraged and given hope. Out of that, I believe, we are given God.”

— “Friendship Is A Prayer”

Thanks, guys, for the reminder, and the cheesecake, and the friendship, and the prayer.  God love you all. 

Now, cue Randy Newman.