“Nothing changed, except God spoke…”
Battling with a weak self image seemed to plague my early days as a Christian, actually it propelled me to Christianity. One day as I was battling with my university studies, I felt very blue with not a friend in the world. I really felt like there was no-one I could really call a true friend.
Suddenly God spoke and asked me to list everything I expected from a true friend. This was not too difficult, getting a piece of paper, I jotted down what I thought were the essentials. Then God asked me “can I be a friend like that?” Looking at my list again, I realised my list was so self-centred that not even God could fulfil my criteria and still remain God.
God then asked me to write a new list of things someone could expect of me if I was a really good friend to them. This list took quite a bit longer to write, and was actually pretty heart searching. When I finally finished, God asked “Does anyone fulfil these criteria?” Going through my list, it suddenly dawned on me that I had 5 very good friends.
That day I had learned a lesson that has stayed with me for over 30 years, and has helped me whenever I have felt down. In that little 60 minute exercise in my university bedroom nothing changed, except God spoke.