A few short years ago, the word friend was simply a noun. You didn’t friend someone; you made friends with someone. Unfriend wasn’t in our vernacular, either. In the days before social media became so pervasive, you had to actually avoid someone in person rather than simply blocking their profile if you didn’t want to be friends with them anymore.
I remember spending the night at a friend’s house in the 5th grade, and we got into a squabble about something petty. I can’t even remember now what the argument was about, but it was too late to call my parents to go home (only the wealthy had mobile phones, and there was no such thing as texting), so I had to sleep on her floor. We didn’t talk to each other forever—like a whole day—and then we were friends again.
Aren’t we all fickle like that, to some degree? Part of growing up means learning to work through difficulties in our relationships. The cliché used to be that people “wear their feelings on their sleeves,” but now it’s more likely that they wear their feelings on their Wall. Pride often warps our judgment, and with a few clicks, we can share how we really feel about so-and-so or such-and-such with hundreds of others and unfriend anyone we choose—instantaneously.
Psalm 123:4 reminds us that this pride problem has been around long before friending and unfriending on a whim became part of our culture: “We have endured no end of ridicule from the arrogant, of contempt from the proud” (NIV).
The first time I read that verse, I immediately put myself into the shoes of the one being ridiculed … I can think of plenty of examples when my hurt feelings were on the receiving end of someone else’s contempt. Yet, the more I meditated on the passage, I began to realize that I’m perfectly capable of being the condescending one, as well. Let’s focus our prayer time this week on working through these issues.
faith, sweat & tears 