Befriend

To befriend is more than being a friend to someone. It’s an active, deliberate and conscious action to make friends with someone who until then, has not been a friend. It happens in school, and in the playground. You know, it’s the point where you think it is a good thing to try to make someone feel included. Included. That’s a big concept, and one we as Christians should be good at, after all it is a basic part of Jesus’ command that we love one another, and love your neighbour too.

There is another aspect to befriending someone, in that it’s not always your first choice, and can involve stepping out of your comfort zone. It means taking that risk, perhaps in the knowledge that your other ‘friends’ may not agree, or accept your choice in the same way you do, but they are not the reason you would do it, right? It goes deeper. Can you go back in your mind to a time when someone took the risk and befriended you? That person possibly ended up as one of your closest, or very best friends, or bff (best friends forever for those who do not know the jargon).


I well remember when I was much younger, being given a lesson in the game of ‘pairs dominos’, when an older and wiser man told me, ‘always play the hand you want to get back’. Hmmm. We all want someone to be our friend, so all we have to do is be the friend that we would like someone to be to us. Easy? No. Rewarding? Yes, and certainly so. Human nature proves it time and again. So next time there is a new face at church, or you see someone who obviously ‘needs a friend’, why not do the decent thing and befriend them. You won’t regret following Jesus’ command and example, that I can guarantee! After all, Jesus words on the subject are: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:13-14a.