It’s 4:10 AM in hospital room 617. Yes, I’m back here again...seems like I’ve spent some quality time in just about every room on this floor. Serendipitously, I find myself looking straight across the hall at the room number I hate more than any other – 601. But I won’t get into that right now.
When you have your health, you just don’t appreciate it – not like you do when you are without it. I would move mountains to have one day free of pain and complications, and I have to believe that day is coming soon – just around the next corner. For now though, I’m stuck at a red light on the corner of pain and suffering.
What do you do when you’re right here? I know I can’t give up, so I have to dig deep to find a way through. But at the end of my digging, I’m finding there’s not a lot there. I reach for my phone and notice I’ve got 7 texts and 8 voicemails.
Then it hit me. Exodus 17:12. Today I don’t have to dig. I have friends who will dig for me, hold me up when I can’t do it myself.
I am not good at staying in touch. It used to be a blind spot in my life, but it has almost cost me some of my closest friendships. Now it is a glaring weakness that I vow never to repeat – one of the upsides of this whole ordeal is I get a ‘re-do’. Looking back I think I was always waiting for a moment – a pinnacle that would cause a rebirth of who I am at my core. Well, if this doesn’t qualify, nothing ever will.
But what does that really mean? It means when a friend is going through something I do more than just think about them. I call. I email. I text. I let them know I am thinking of them and that I would be there in a moment’s notice – just say the word. My sister calls it ‘being there’.
The value of a true friend can never be calculated. As I’m thinking back over the last month, I realize now how much of the time I was held up (sometimes literally) by the enduring strength of friends who are literally as close as brothers to me.
There’s a verse in 2 Corinthians that jumped out at me when I read it the other day – “Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day”. This has been a rough week for me. But even in the thick of it, one friend gave me a glimpse of redemption in all this – gave me a renewed spirit.
Meet Ryan Everett Graves. A new life whose name pays tribute to an incredible life already lived. I cannot even begin to tell you how this new life has impacted me, and the depth of friendship that lies underneath it.
Friends are more important than money. More than things. I am more motivated than ever to work harder at those life-long friendships than I am at going after temporary gain. Thanks for reminding me of that Jay.