IN SEARCH OF A FRIEND
Read 2 Timothy 1:17.
I’ve recently been invited to join Facebook by several old friends. What is Facebook? Facebook (from what little I know) is a website that one joins to make contact with friends new and old. It is a way to keep up on what’s going on in people’s lives. Suppose you want to find an old friend. You might go to Facebook, type in his or her name, and if they have joined Facebook, you can go to their personal page and find out what that person is doing these days. (I’m probably making it sound simpler than it is.) You might also be pleased to find other people you know linked into their page – people you hadn’t heard of for decades. The idea behind it is actually pretty cool.
Sadly, though, it can also be a reminder of just how poorly we’ve maintained contacts over the years. I must admit that I have lost touch with whole segments of my life. Haven’t been to a high school class reunion since the 10th year. I have no idea what my old high school friends are doing. The same is true of my old college friends. Even someone I consider a close friend I probably talk to only once or twice a year. How sad!
Onesiphorus, on the other hand, is a great example of a great friend. Today’s verse says he searched hard for Paul until he found him. Now some might say that if Onesiphorus was such a good friend, he would have known where Paul was. But as Craig shared on Sunday, we have to remember that this was nearly 2,000 years ago. They didn’t have telephones or a unified postal service or newspapers or radios… nothing that would have notified Onesiphorus that Paul had even been imprisoned. So for even a good friend like Onesiphorus, to find Paul would have required perhaps miles and miles of activity – asking lots of questions (remember they didn’t have photographs), walking from one place to another trying to run down any leads. Staying in touch with friends was a lot harder back then than it is today!
If there is anything to be learned from Onesiphorus is that a good friend seeks out the well being of a friend no matter how hard it might be. He wants to make sure that his friend is doing okay. He wants to be there to encourage and support his friend. It may be very inconvenient sometimes, but that’s what friends do.
Do you have friends you are neglecting? Consider seeking them out. Find out what’s happening in their lives.
Maybe it’s time I joined Facebook.