July 12, 2014 Thought

Support to Success

Support your friends

so they too may support

you when you need them.

What makes you feel ten feet tall when in a six-foot hole? For me, the answer is my friends. I go back to my friends as a default answer to a lot of situations that, even though I pray, they can make feel a lot less daunting. Almost through my entire high school career, I played the tough guy who didn't need support with his problems, even if he had any. It was hardly that way at home. 

     I have at least four people I trust with telling them anything, knowing that 1) if I asked it of them, they would not tell anyone, and 2) they wouldn't give sympathy, but guidance and an ear that will listen to even the largest heaps of rubbish. Had I not used those friends as the resources they are, I may not have made it all the way through high school with my sanity. My junior year, I participated in a Facebook event known as "Pay it Forward." I made five handmade gifts and gave them to five different people. Without asking anything in return, those five people are to do the same for five other people and so on and so forth. Now this act of reaching out is one way to symbolically repay those friends for sticking by me, but I prefer the more direct approach of sticking by them. "Caleb" in the Israeli translation means faithful or loyal. As a friend, I seek out to forever--as long as it is in my power--give support, even if it is just my ears that they need, if they so ask of me.

     A TV show I watch has a character that lives by a moral of "anyone who breaks the rules given to him is scum, but if he were to abandon his friends, he becomes worse than scum." Hearing that for the first time, I immediately knew I would rather be scum by breaking the rules rather than become worse than scum by abandoning my friends. They didn't abandon me when I called on them, and I refuse to be put into a situation where I leave them in shadows and ultimately cause them to sever my friendship. I have a list of people, seven so far, that have willingly cut off my friendship for unknown reasons. It is one of the worst feelings I have ever experienced; this is due to my fear of solitude. The less friends I have, the more alone I feel, and being of an introverted nature, it puts me in that six-foot hole that everyone dreads.
     How do you cherish your friends? What acts of loyalty will you strive for to hold onto them so that they know they are loved, just as God sent His Son to show He loved us. Please share in the comments below if you're willing. Thank you.