From Servant to Friend

We have a friend named Michelle living with us currently. She awaits sentencing on some charges of forgery, and spent some time this winter in the Black Hawk County Jail and at Pathways Drug Treatment. Last night, as I lay in bed with my daughter, Sara, to review the day and pray, she said, "Mom, if you didn't know Michelle had been in jail, you'd just think she's a friend and fun to be around." My daughter, through her experience of knowing Michelle, is going through the inner journey of challenging the culture's message that gets embedded in each of us....that people who go to jail are "bad people".

"Relationships are the critical factor for change." This is so true. I am grateful for Michelle..that we are growing in our relationship....learning from one another....accepting "coaching tips" from one another in the areas of our strengths, and appreciating one another's God-given personalities. In short, we're being blessed with friendship.

This is a powerful quote from Robert Lupton in his book Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life:

“Perhaps beyond the revolutionary Christian mandate of service is the final revolution, the possibility of being friends. Friends are people who know each other, who care, respect, struggle, and are committed through time. Why friends rather than servants? Perhaps it is because Jesus knew that servants could always become lords but that friends could not. Professional servants may operate on assumption that ‘you will be better because I know better,’ but friends believe that ‘we will be better because we share in each others’ lives.’ Servants are people who know the mysteries that can control those to whom they give ‘help’. Friends, on the other hand, are free to give and receive help from each other."

"I no longer call you servants...instead, I have called you friends." - Jesus (John 15:15)