Moving – Friends – Grateful

Today as I write this I am in the middle of a move, which I feel like I have been in the middle of for 3 or more months. Every 10 years or so in our married life we have moved. This is 10.5 but it still fits in the rhythm. For me, I think it is a time of reflecting because I am also downsizing and purging. It is interesting that we spend our 20’s, 30’s and 40’s accumulating stuff and now I am spending the second half of life getting rid of it so that it will not burden my children! Everything I have is a memory of another time, or a special event, or a friend, or the history of our family. And yet, as I watch American Pickers I am shocked at the mounds of decaying treasures that weigh down a space and overwhelm a life.

Today though I am thinking most about something I cannot get rid of, a treasure I can never live without and that is my friends. During this season, I have been reminded of the blessing of friends as I have been fed, housed, prayed over, helped to pack, nudged to let go, given time and muscle. I cannot figure out how to begin to express the depth of gratitude I have. I do not deserve such love and kindness. I have been cared for in many meaningful and powerful ways; these are friendships that are not just “collected”as followers on social media. Rather, they are blessing me and reflecting God’s favor in practical ways. I am humbled by the amount of amazing people God has put into my life as friends. And I am more importantly I hope to find myself worthy of my friends.

I think of Frank Dempster Sherman’s prayer entitled Worthy of My Friends:

It is my joy in life to find
At every turning of the road
The strong arm of a comrade kind
To help me onward with my load.

And since I have no gold to give,
And love alone must make amends,
My only prayer is, while I live-
God make me worthy of my friends.