Thank Your Friends While You Can

Thank Your Friends while You Can

Don't Wait Until They're Leaving to Let Them Know

I recently went to  a friends college graduation; let's call her DJ Mike. There was food, badminton, a plethora of conversations, new students who knew DJ-Mike or simply wanted to be part of the festivities. At some point we were all called to order by group-picture-girl to sit down/stand around and share memories about DJ-Mike. Usually the girls start sharing their feelings about said person and everyone say's awwww in their hearts but awkwardly tries to think of something deep and profound to say. In this story however the guys were practically fighting to get a chance to share leaving the girls in the dust. I was amazed at the stories they told.

Surfer-dude shared about the time they were standing in line for a ride in Disney world in a line that had a 3 hour wait. Now DJ Mike is considered one of the funniest yet deep people in our group and on this occasion she had payed for surfer-dude to enter the park as well as food and other needed expenses. Let's just say even though there was a 3 hour wait surfer-dude still felt pretty good about the whole thing. They started moving slowly while DJ-Mike kept on cracking jokes. At one point DJ-Mike said something and added in a made up word that was completely gibberish. They were both laughing and at that moment an employee was passing them and heard her. He came over to them and asked what she had just heard. They both repeated it back to him and he started laughing ridiculously hard. The employee then said that since it was so funny they could move to the front of the line. The point of that story being that it was DJ-Mike's ridiculousness and humor that caused them to have such a fun day regardless of being able to skip in line.

As everyone was laughing at surfer dude's story I reflected on wow this is what it means to be a disciple. Not the skipping in line part but the pure joy of simply living life and loving others. It was because of love (not romantically) that DJ-Mike gave to surfer-dude in such a way. 

The-Happiest-Man-Alive-Sayer said something that really stood out to me. After recalling more of DJ-Mike's awesomeness he stated that perhaps moments like these are important for letting a person know how you felt about them BUT we needed to get to a point where we could do you're this regardless of whiter they're leaving or not. Too often we wait until the end, the last minute, the final count down. If we are to have deep relationships with one another we should often convey our feelings for the intended person. I don't even mean to our "lovers" or what ever their called. I simply mean to every day people in our lives. It doesn't have to be fancy. Just call them or simply walk up to them and say, "I'm so grateful you are in my life because..." and fill in the blank. It can be that simple at times.

Relationships of any kind are hard. As someone once said, "If you want it come and get it." The only way to have a deep friendship is to make it. If it's hard that means that you're touching some part of their life and you're growing as a person.