I’m attending the President’s Council for the Christian Businessman Ministry Connection conference, (CBMC), and the theme is isolationism and its ill effects on those who’ve become isolated in our society.
They’re going to use my testimony as an extreme example of what can happen to those who become isolated. I went to 19 different schools in about as many states including three different high schools. I didn’t develop any lifelong friends; didn’t have any mentors, coaches, or teachers that impacted my life, and my family life was in a word dysfunctional. Experts say that our personality is already formed by the young age of five and we remain recognizably the same person thereafter. At five years old I nailed my pet rabbit up to a shed and stood and laughed as blood ran down its furry white throat.
Yikes!
I became isolated and withdrew into my own dark world and became a loner full of hate, anger, bitterness, and frustration. Five military psychiatrists upon examining me at a court martial hearing declared that I was a sociopath with no conscience, incapable of love, and well on my way to becoming a serial killer and that my condition was “incurable”.
(I suppose they didn’t know the healing power of God in that regard, because the great physician Jesus Christ proved them wrong on that one.)
I didn’t have any real friends until after I became a Christian and I was perhaps 30 years old. Today I have many friends all over the country and indeed the world; however it is still very difficult for me to interact with anyone and I have to work hard at it. I assume this is due to my early years of being a lone wolf. To this day most of the time I still prefer being alone; however I realize that being isolated is not always healthy.
The Bible teaches that friends are a necessary ingredient to healthy lives. Proverbs in particular speaks of this often. One verse I like is Proverbs 27:17 – As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Another in Eccl. 4:9 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
The Apostle Paul lists fellowship with other Christians as being an important part of the “full armor of God”. We need friends in order to successfully battle the dark forces that want to bring us down. Friendship is ESSENTIAL to finding success . . .
We have no better friend than Jesus Christ. Listen what to what He told us in John 15:13 – There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.
Old King Solomon said that the friendlier we are the more friends we’ll have. Go out there today and be friendly and make some friends. Keep in mind that no one is perfect, (including you), so be willing to look past the imperfections that you will undoubtedly find in others. All of us have faults, but be willing to overlook them. Bend like a reed in a windstorm and cut others some slack. Don’t be rigid like a pine tree and snap at the first storm that comes along. Remember friendship is not a luxury; it’s a necessity in order to effectively resist satan in our lives.
And one last thing – There is one friendship that is disastrous to us and we need to avoid it like the plague. (See below)
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!
James 4:4
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
October 18, 2013 – Click here to listen