Last night, I stayed up late to call a friend of mine in another timezone right at midnight so I could be the first to wish him a happy birthday. Indeed, I was. As I went to sleep that night, I thought about what a good friend he is. I thought that I had done an honor thread with Rodney, so why not to my friend Dave?
Now I can easily imagine some JWs getting upset at this point. I am honoring a pagan idea of a birthday condemned in the Bible (Which it isn’t) and I am honoring a man instead of honoring God. Now if they want to tell me that I am giving honor to a man then I have one thing to say.
Yeah…..And?
The Bible does say to give honor where honor is due by telling us some people we should honor such as those in authority. I choose to say honor friends also. Friends are people that you choose. You are born with family and you have to accept them as such. Indeed, we would probably not are particularly for the people in our family if we were not related to them.
So I shall honor my friend now and when other friends have birthdays coming up, I shall honor them as well. (Provided they let me know about it.)
My friend, I remember out first meeting. You saw me posting in a thread and sent me a compliment. I was stunned. I didn’t know who you were at the time, but more and more, I saw you posting and I was liking what I saw. However, I only knew you through a computer screen at that time.
We arranged a good place to meet at though when you passed through my area and we did and I saw a guy very much like me. I remember your mother was there and I showed you both my place. We then went out to my favorite pizzeria that I insisted you had to experience while in town.
We talked about so many topics in theology and apologetics that night. I remember especially our discussion on the Problem of Evil and discussing the idea of the God who is there, taken from Francis Schaeffer. I rarely have such enjoyable dinner conversations. We then exchanged phone numbers and since we have the same carrier, we can call each other for free all we want.
Our next meeting though definitely was in Atlanta at a convention we were both a part of and we were both roommates. I remember something happened there that I really needed a friend to talk to. I was particularly frightened at one point. You weren’t there physically, but I called you up and you were my friend when I really needed it. I don’t know how I would have handled it without you.
We did get to room together. I remember we’d stay up late discussing apologetics and Final Fantasy. Who would have thought those two went together so well? You’ve even said that if we room together at Seminary, we’d just stay up all night discussing Final Fantasy and apologetics.
I’m still wondering what the downside is.
Today, I’m pleased to call you my friend. You’ve been an encourager when I’ve needed one. (Among many other friends of course.) You’ve been someone I can discuss things with freely and have seen me at the gloomiest moments of my melancholy personality. I’m pleased to call you friend.
I see what you’re reading and it really pleases me. You’re always so encouraging of me and so many times, I just don’t see what you see, but I do know when I see you, I see a true friend and one I don’t intend to let go of. Wherever my path takes me in the future, I pray it keeps me in touch with you.
To you, one of my many true friends, I wish you a Happy Birthday. May God bless you as you have been a blessing to me.
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