I’m about to let you in on a secret. You may want to take my man card. I used to really like the TV show, “Golden Girls.” Thank you for being a friend, you traveled down the road and back again. You had to love that theme song. It was a good one. I really loved how sarcastic they were. I’m glad that sarcasm didn’t rub off on me. Whew, dodged that bullet!
A show like that resonates with us because we all want friends. There’s nothing like a good friend. Paul needed good friends in a difficult time in his life. Timothy and Epaphroditus were the right guys at the right time. What made them good friends to Paul? Timothy genuinely cared about other people. There is nothing like having a “friend” who only talks about themselves and doesn’t listen to your stories. It’s easy to be that kind of friend. We all want someone to listen to us and encourage us and be interested in our stuff. We can easily drift into everything always being about...US. We don’t want a friend like that and guess what? Our friends don’t want someone that only cares about themselves. Timothy cared about others! I would bet that Timothy was a positive person. I’m sure he got discouraged. We know he had an illness. Paul wrote to encourage him. There is a lesson to learn here. People who put others first don’t get as easily discouraged because they don’t focus on themselves and therefore have the time to get down. Understand this; it has to be a genuine concern for others. A false sense of humility and service just leads to more frustration because we are not getting the praise and satisfaction we are craving.
Epaphroditus, we’ll call him Phro, was another great comrade. Paul called him a brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier. Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.” There is nothing like a brother, they may argue with you and pick on you but when it comes time to get serious, they have your back. We all feel complete when we have someone who will work beside us. Nothing makes a tough job more bearable than having a co-worker. Lastly, Phro was a fellow soldier. Lasting bonds are made on the battlefield. Men who served in wars like WWII still remain friends today even though years and miles separate them. When you face death together and sacrifice together, whether physically or spiritually, it forms an unbreakable bond. We need people to fight the good fight along side us.
So, what do we do? Do we go in search of this kind of friend? I believe if you do, that you will be frustrated. The better course is to seek to be that kind of friend to others. Going back to Kindergarten, the best way to have a friend is to be a friend. We forget that along the way sometimes. The church needs more friends to stand beside each other. So go get your Sophia, Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy and live a little life.
