"People claim that we live in a world of irreconcilable differences, that lasting peace can not be achieved because there is no way to change the human heart." - Steve Saint
Recognition - How can we find true friendship in this often false and temporary world? Friendship involves recognition or familiarity with another person's personality. Friends generally share likes and dislikes, interests, activities and passion.
How can we recognize a potential friendship? Signs include a mutual desire for fellowship and perhaps a common bond of some kind. In addition, genuine friendship involves a common sense of caring and concern, a desire and hope to see each other grow, develop, and succeed in all aspects of life. True friendship involves action: doing something for another person without expecting anything in return; share thoughts and feelings without fear of judgment or negative criticism.
The story of the pilot in the jungle was retold in the End of the Spear, a film that begins with an intimate and guttural narration about an idyllic aerial scene of an Amazon rainforest. "People claim that we live in a world of irreconcilable differences, that lasting peace can not be achieved because there is no way to change the human heart." But the story of this movie, a trip down a remote river, "Challenges what many people they say. "This introduces Steve Saint, our guide, through the surreal and sincere world of missionary imagination. We traveled with Steve to the Ecuadorian rainforest of 1943.
A hollow "Waodani" hut is attacked and its villagers murdered by ruthless enemy warriors at night. One of which kills a baby. We followed two child protagonists, a boy named Mincayani and a little girl, Dayumae, as they fled.
The next narrator, Steve Saint, takes us back to his own childhood in 1956, strangely staged to resemble the overly quiet domestic images of a 1950s sitcom full of Roy Rogers cowboy hats, airplane models, a mother wearing an apron and a Lassie as a dog. We met his enthusiastic and bright-eyed father, Nate Saint (Chad Allen) and four American companions (the bizarre energy of his unimaginative portraits was one of the few things that seemed true in this missionary coherent missionary). It is twenty minutes before they tell us that they are missionaries, "closer than the family of blood," and who plan to contact the Waodani for vague and partially articulated reasons (are they hoping to save them from intertribal extinction?) "They are concerned about the government troops, or with their own violent nature? Or are they trying to free them from a Satanic "prison"?)
The score, ranging from drum beats and "tribal" chants, where the Waodani seem like angelic choral arrangements and pastoral chord progressions to the missionaries, leave no doubt as to when we should feel when and what. At first, the blatant emotion of music is appreciated as a much-needed aid to follow the inflexibly dramatic mechanical script that assumes its power. It's a friendship story. When Nate Saint says, "Son, the Waodani are not ready for heaven. We are, "we know we should simply believe. That's when the brilliant idea of an effect phrase enters the boy's mind. He then seeks his aunt's help and translates into Wao, the best catch phrase in the world: "I am your true friend."
True Friendship - Relationship, Trust, Accountability
True friendship involves relationship. These mutual attributes that we have mentioned above become the basis on which recognition appears in the relationship. Many people say, "Oh, he's a good friend of mine," but they never spend time with this "good friend." Friendship takes time: time to get to know each other, to build shared memories, to invest in each other's growth.
A friend of mine, half Barnabas and half Timothy, came to seek his own interests and broke the bonds that seemed to bind us together. After some time another very dear and dear friend did the same. This has happened again and again; time after time, during my entire lifetime. What's wrong? As I look into the recent and distant past as well, I have become attached to the hard tears that roll because of the friends that come and go. Do I value my friends more than the Lord of friends?
One of these days I received a "friend request" through a social network. I confirmed the request and noticed the following message that said: "You are friends now". This caught my attention and intrigued me, wondering if friendship would be something so quick and immediately ready to be achieved. After all, I have learned that a friend is a treasure (Ecclesiastes 6.14) and that precisely because it is so, it is a rare thing, which takes time to know and to conquer.
This idea that friendship takes time to be born already appears among the ancient philosophers, both the Greeks and the Romans. For example, Aristotle states in his Nicomachean Ethics that "we can not know the people until they have 'consumed the proverbial salt.'" This same principle is also present in the work of Friendship, by the Roman philosopher and philosopher Marco Túlio Cicero: "It is necessary to eat much salt manners with someone so that the friendship is fully consolidated."
"Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, better known as Lampião (more archaic spelling 'Lampeão'), was the most famous bandit leader of the Cangaço. The Cangaço was a form of banditry endemic to the Brazilian Northeast. was particularly prevalent in the 1920s and 1930s). Lampião led a group of up to 100 cangaçeiros, who occasionally took small towns and waged a series of successful actions against the paramilitary police, when at a great disadvantage.
Lampião's exploits and reputation made him a 'popular hero'. Then the story goes that once when Captain Lampião met a so called Colonel (farm owners/homesteaders) with the intention of invading his farm, the farmer said, scared of the cangaceiros and without realizing that he was speaking with the captain himself, he said that he was a friend of the king of cangaço.
Virgulino Ferreira was influenced by the honor he brought to be known as someone's friend and yet he was annoyed by the fibbing of the colonel. Then he made the following judgment and uttered the sentence: "O xente (hick expression typical of the Northeast of Brazil), I am flattered with so much friendship with you, though I have never seen it. And to be friends with someone, it is said that it is necessary to eat a pot of salt with your friend. And since I've just met you, my sentence will be that you eat your half of the salt right now. "To make the short tale even shorter, he forced the man to eat the entire pot of salt until he passed away, tragically leaving quite pleasant the narrative of a short story with its strange moral applications to be told for many decades to come.
Trust is essential to true friendship. We all need someone with whom we can share our lives, thoughts, feelings, and frustrations. We need to be able to share our deepest secrets with someone, without worrying that those secrets will end up on the Internet the next day! Failure to be trusted with these intimate secrets can destroy a friendship. Faithfulness and loyalty are fundamental to true friendship. Without them, we often feel betrayed, left out, and lonely. In true friendship there is no slander, no negative thoughts, no withdrawal.
True friendship requires certain accountability factors. True friends encourage and forgive one another where there has been an offense. Genuine friendship supports in times of struggle. Friends are trustworthy. In true friendship, unconditional love develops. We love our friends no matter what and always want the best for them.
True friendship - examples of real friendship - true stories of friendship are found throughout the Bible. In Genesis 18. 17-33, we read about God sharing his intentions with Abraham. Abraham responds by telling God his thoughts and feelings about the situation. God and Abraham are able to do this because they trust and respect each other.
First Samuel 20 focuses on the friendship of David and Jonathan. These two men really cared for each other and had great confidence in each other. David was running after Jonathan's father, Saul, who pursued him. Jonathan recognized that David was innocent. Because of the true friendship they shared, David survived Saul's assassination attempts and became one of Israel's greatest kings.
True and Biblical friendship involves freedom of choice, responsibility, truth, and forgiveness. Peter and Jesus give us this example: Peter, fearful of his life after Jesus is taken away from the Garden of Gethsemane, denies knowing him (John 18). When taken by his accusers, Jesus takes a look at Peter who says, "I knew that you would deny me, and I forgive you" (John 21).
True friendship looks to the heart of the Lord, not just to the "packing of the friend." Genuine friendship loves for love, not just for what it can receive in return. True friendship is challenging and exciting. He risks, ignores failures and loves unconditionally, but it also involves being sincere, even if it hurts. Genuine friendship, also called "agape" love, comes from the Lord. The Lord Jesus calls us to his friends and gave his life for us (John 15).
Real-life relationships involve different levels of friendship and that's fine. But humans are designed by God for enduring relationships. Often our isolationist society offers only vague and empty relationships. God wants us to have friends here on earth. Above all, he wants us to be his friends!
The Word of God tells us that a friend is closer than a brother and that to be a friend, one should befriend (Proverbs 18.24). The question is, what kind of friend do you want to be?
Proverbs 18.19 says, "It is more difficult to make amends with an offended friend than to capture a fortified city. Arguments separate friends like a locked gate with iron bars." When we offend a true friend - be it by breaking a trust or speaking the truth with love - we risk losing that friendship. We must be careful not to break trust. But when we do not speak the truth will do more harm in the lives of our friends, we must be willing to sacrifice our needs for those of our friend. This is true friendship.
If we sometimes offend a friend unintentionally, the Word of God offers a solution. This is called forgiveness. There is no greater example than God's love for us. He is so great that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that our friendship with God might be restored. He did this despite the fact that he had been deeply offended, cosmically. We disobey his commandments, turn our backs to him, and go our own way. So the question remains: what kind of friend do you want to be? True Christian friendship forgives.
In The End of the Spear, friendship was found in forgiveness, but before that, friendship was found by those who gave their lives so the other could live. In the statement "they are not ready for heaven" Nate Saint drew the line we must follow to be a true friend, in whatever language one can speak. A sad news for me is to realize that, like the Colonel in the salt-pot tale, I can sometimes seem more like a friend than I was.
You see, in my reverse state of mind, without Jesus and against God, I could only claim to be a good friend of the King of Kings. However, in redemption, when my friendship is neither based nor valued in me or in my feelings or in my heart that is very misleading but has its own weight in Jesus, I will look even for those who can try me kill or harm me in any way, and only see the image of Jesus who died for them. So I will not use weapons against those who are not ready to experience the joy that is yet to come.
Do you need a friend? God wants to be your true friend. Are you yearning for company? God is always with you (Hebrews 13. 5). Who do you know who needs a true friend today? God wants you to be friends with others. He calls us to be his hands and feet in a world hungry for true friendship.
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