{"id":10562,"date":"2012-02-19T17:17:38","date_gmt":"2012-02-19T21:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nakedpastor.com\/?p=10562"},"modified":"2012-02-19T17:17:38","modified_gmt":"2012-02-19T21:17:38","slug":"thankful-for-my-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2012\/02\/thankful-for-my-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"thankful for my friends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"watercolor<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesus called his disciples his friends.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about friendship lately. Perhaps you read my post this morning<\/a>. It\u2019s my theme today.<\/p>\n

Since Lisa and I left the church two years ago we\u2019ve experienced times of severe loneliness. We lost a bunch of friends all at once. It wasn\u2019t our intention for it to go that way, but it did. We also lost the culture of fellowship that provided a network of friendships that could be renewed and renegotiated every week. That wasn\u2019t our intention either, but that\u2019s what happened. Although there was a lots of positives about our experience of friendship in the church, it surprisingly came to an abrupt end. Partly my fault because I\u2019m the one who left.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve learned some new things about friendship.<\/p>\n

Lisa is a full-time student getting her nursing degree and has met a whole new set of people and made new friends of excellent quality. I\u2019ve become a teacher of English as a second language to Pre-MBA students. I too have made new friends, each one of them special, unique and valuable to me in different ways.<\/p>\n

Lisa and I have been our best companions. I\u2019d be lost without her. But we are also so thankful for our friends. They\u2019ve come bearing gifts of love, acceptance and joy. They appreciate who we are just as we are.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell a few of the things that make these new friends beautiful:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They really do love<\/strong> me. Although from my experience I have a suspicion that you can never know for sure, their love for me feels unconditional. They don\u2019t seem to have some kind of theological or ecclesiological mental matrix that I have to fit into or face rejection. I am more myself than I have ever been because I feel the many restrictions departing. I actually experiment with being truly me. And they love me just the same, if not more.<\/li>\n
  2. They don\u2019t care<\/strong> about my past. Even though they are interested in my story, they don\u2019t hold it against me because they realize, just like with them, that I am not my history. They don\u2019t use it to judge me or to predict me. They see David before them and embrace him just as he is. It\u2019s so refreshing to just be accepted and loved for who I am right now without the stickiness of religious hopes and expectations.<\/li>\n
  3. They help me be carefree<\/strong>. Although I still have a few friends from the past that I treasure, most of them have also left the church. Along with my new friends, my friends now are so much more carefree. Fun is valued. Happiness is sought. Frivolity is encouraged and appreciated. We have some pretty serious talks, but they aren\u2019t laden with propriety. It is nice just have lighthearted fun and to be so carefree.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Jesus loved his friends. I\u2019m sure this is what he meant.<\/p>\n

    Buy a print of my painting Redbird Pair<\/a>, a picture of friendship.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Jesus called his disciples his friends. I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about friendship lately. Perhaps you read my post this morning. It\u2019s my theme today. Since Lisa and I left the church two years ago we\u2019ve experienced times of severe loneliness. We lost a bunch of friends all at once. It wasn\u2019t our intention for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[4264,1111,105,722,34,2477,120],"class_list":["post-10562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-thought","tag-art","tag-david-hayward","tag-friends","tag-nakedpastor","tag-painting","tag-redbirds","tag-watercolor"],"yoast_head":"\nthankful for my friends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jesus called his disciples his friends. I've been thinking a lot about friendship lately. 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