Provoked by a Simple Question

It was a one sentence Facebook status update - a question with no following explanation. But the question has been haunting me since I saw it last night.

"Would you want yourself as a best friend?" my colleague Kevin inquired.

I breezed through it last night only to find myself still thinking about the question when my eyes opened this morning.

"Would you want yourself as a best friend?"

Umm. I'm not sure.

While I often have the best intentions, I regularly forget to call someone on their birthday let alone purchase a package or plan to spend time together. While a day never goes by without me spending time on Facebook, I don't often take two or three minutes to wish all my "friends" a happy birthday. I have friends who I adore, people with whom I have shared significant life journeys, who live in the same city but who I only see a couple of times a year. I know how to show up for parishioners who are in crisis at my church. I strive to never disappoint them even though I sometimes do. I give my heart and soul to being a pastor, but I cannot say the same about being a friend.

Perhaps I'm being hard on myself.

Or maybe I'm telling the truth.

Today is a new day. I'm going to call a friend to wish her "Happy Birthday." I'm going to get the 2017 calendar organized, noting special events in the lives of friends. I'm going to email another friend to make time to get together. I'm going to seek to approach friendship with the way I approach being a pastor.

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13).

This verse is an equally challenging invitation and one I'm going to accept. It's time to lay down a bit of my own life, a bit of my own priorities or desires, a bit of my busyness, and instead pay attention to my friends.

What about you? How would you respond to the question?

"Would you want yourself as a best friend?"