Friendship Day

            This coming Sunday marks National Friendship Day.  The first Sunday in August was designated back in 1935 by Congress as National Friendship Day.  And I can't think of a better time to talk about friendship than on this date.

            Why?  Because two days ago marked the anniversary of that diving accident in which I broke my neck.  And even though more than 40 years have passed, it's still the friendships that were forged around that long ago hospital bed.  Wow, did God use friends in my life to change my perspective on things.  I don't know what I would have done without those friendships.  So on National Friendship Day, I'm saying a special thank you to those dear friends who have remained so faithful, so true, helping me look on the bright side and see beyond the dark days of my paralysis.

            What would people like me do without friends?  What would folks in hospitals or nursing homes or convalescent centers do without the loving support of Christian friends?  I'm thinking about an 83-year-old woman named Elizabeth Paul whose eyes have grown cloudy and her hearing is going bad and she has a tough time getting around - but hey, she's not the one who's in a hospital bed.  No, 83-year-old Elizabeth is the one who's on a friendship mission.  Every Wednesday Mrs. Paul spends up to an hour riding a bus from her uptown apartment to Bellevue Hospital in New York where she spends 5 ½ hours volunteering.

            In the hubbub of an emergency room that treats 100,000 people a year, Elizabeth Paul seeks to surround patients with what she calls a halo of quietness.  They might be people with AIDS or tuberculosis, somebody with the flu, they might be prisoners shackled to stretchers.  To Mrs. Paul, they are all equal.  These are all people in need of a friend.  And her motive is simply this:  She says, "God put me here to serve."

            That's what friendship is.  It's a way of serving others.  God has not put friends in your life so that you can get something from them.  No.  he has placed friends in your life so that you might serve them.  I learned that lesson well as I watched my friends faithfully come by my hospital bed many years ago, always giving, always caring, always looking for something to do, some way to help.

            And Mrs. Elizabeth Paul does the same thing - goodness, you'd think an 83-year-old woman whose got aches and pains would be looking to receive something from people around her.  But Mrs. Paul reminds us all:  God has put us here to serve.  That's an important part of friendship to remember on National Friendship Day.

Used by permission of JONI AND FRIENDS  P.O. Box 3333  Agoura Hills, CA 91376

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