Thoughts About Friends and Enemies
Last Thursday I drove down to the coast of Georgia, to a little hamlet called Eulonia to be exact, to spend a couple of days whacking a few golf balls around the marshes.
At least that was the excuse we gave for the trip. Lincoln set the week-end up for us and set us up in his condo along with a unit he borrowed from a friend.
The view of the marshes and the Sapelo River from the condos stood as reminders that there is no beauty on earth that can compare with the creativity of God’s own hand.
Lincoln and Ken made the drive down from Dublin. Marty and Jimmy showed up from the Atlanta area. Bob came from the shadow of Lookout Mountain. Henry, or at least what’s left of him after losing 55 pounds, drifted in from the Carolina Low Country while Barry made his way out of the Okefenokee. All of us made the same fraternal pledge over 30 years ago at the University of Georgia.
As I said, we played golf. Well, some of the guys played golf. Little of what I did resembled golf but I enjoyed the time on the course. One of the courses we played was cut out of the marsh land. It was a little chilly on the marshes the morning we played there but as poor as my golf game is, I couldn’t be miserable in that setting.
We also did considerable damage to the local supply of seafood. I gorged myself on shrimp one evening and oysters on another. The menu at one restaurant featured steaks made from buffalo raised on a local farm. I’ve had a buffalo burger before and found it to be tasty. One fellow in our group ordered one of the steaks and I’ll admit it looked delicious but it just seemed un-natural to me to eat buffalo while on the coast.
We told stories. The truth be told, we already knew most of them, but like hearing a favorite song the refrains still brought smiles to our faces. Occasionally we could even just tell the punch line and laughter would come forth.
In the interest of honesty I must admit there is probably a new story or two to come out of this trip as well. In the end, the week-end wasn’t about golf or seafood or buffalo meat. Rather it was about spending time with good friends.
I had to leave the gathering Saturday evening and make my way back to Monticello for Sunday’s worship service. On Sunday morning I preached a sermon as a part of my Lenten sermon series on the importance of giving up enemies in our lives.
The text on which the sermon was based comes from the sixth chapter of Luke. In that particular text Jesus tells us to respond to others out of the content of our character rather than to respond to them based on their on actions.
I could not help but think of the contrast. I spent three great days with friends only to return and deliver a sermon on the subject of enemies. We basically divide folks in our world into three categories. There are those whom we consider friends, those who are not involved in our lives, and finally those who are our enemies.
How different would life be for all of us if we divided the other folks in our world into two categories instead of three? How would life look if we said there were those in our lives who were our friends and the rest were simply friends we simply had not yet met? We might be amazed at the joy we would find if we treated everyone as if they were our friends.