Do We Need Friends?

Can you make it through life without friends? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

In asking the question of friendship, let’s ask now if we really need friends. Now this could be something that could be true of the whole and not any individual member. You will not read on anyone’s death certificate that the cause of death was celibacy, but if the whole of the human race decided to practice celibacy and succeeded, we would die out within 100 years.

As I try to ponder this question of if we need friends, the obvious answer to me is, “No”, but at the same time, it seems unthinkable to go through life without them. We want to have those people around that we can depend on and whose company we can enjoy and who we can be there for as well.

When I am going through a hard time, I am thankful for the friends I have. I have said my wife is ultimately my best friend, but many times it’s also good to have a male friend around. These are guys that understand in a more personal way what I’m going through. If Allie and I are having marriage issues, these are also good guys to talk to, particularly if they are married themselves.

Actually, forming friends seems just natural. I remember having friends even in kindergarten. I don’t think anyone told me to. I just started interacting with some people and I liked them for whatever reason. Forming friendships just seems to be something that we do naturally.

When I got on Facebook, I remember seeing all these people after awhile start sending me friend requests. Now I have over 3,000. Do I know them all? Of course not. Still, it just seemed natural. We all seem to do this on social media. We’ve come to know people we never would have met otherwise.

For we who are Christians, this is not a surprise. As much as I am an introvert, there is still a part of me that is a social animal. If I didn’t want to connect to anyone, I wouldn’t have got married after all. Most of my time, I prefer to be alone, but I do enjoy the company of my friends when the time comes.

Why are we creatures who are like this? Because we serve a deity who exists in community, the Trinity. God is relational in Himself so we too are relational. We were made to live in community and such community living was the mindset before modern individualism showed up.

So as I conclude, I ask again, do we need friends? No. Still, our lives, including mine, are all greatly enriched because of them.