Sharon Eubank's fantastic talk on friendship and forgiveness...making a real difference
“In friendship ... we think we have chosen our peers. [But] in reality a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university [over] another ... the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting—any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating … good taste in finding one another out. [But] it is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others." -- CS Lewis
Some of the key points in this talk that I love...
• Accentuate the virtues in each other.
• Respect and acceptance have a rippling effect.
• Solving problems is less important than loving people.
• Friendship is designed to revolutionize and civilize the world.
• Wars and contentions should cease.
• Men and women can become friends and family.
• And friendship welds iron to iron. It unites the human family. If you had one sentence about that, it could simply be this—that unity, understanding, and relationships are worth our absolute best efforts.
--"But this phenomenon shows up in the smallest biology, clear up to the largest galaxies. There’s different types of systems that interdepend on each other and they cooperate together in a unified way so that a cell eventually becomes a human body; a gas bubble can cooperate until it makes a galaxy; and ant colonies are built on the same principle that we build nations on. And I can still remember sitting in my parents’ pink and white kitchen as it dawned on me: small things working together in unity to make bigger things is the whole meaning of mortal life. It’s why we’re here...Every once in a while, people can attain that kind of oneness and unity. Enoch did it with a whole city."
Sharon also gives this beautiful tribute to her good friend... I, too, have been blessed with this. May I quote..."I have been incredibly blessed in my life to have a friend to me who is a model of everything that Emma Smith describes. It isn’t that she is nice to me—she is. But she has succored me in my weaknesses, she has borne with me in my troubles, she’s rejoiced in good seasons. She has refused to throw my weaknesses in my face. She’s inspired me to be a better person. She’s talked to me when no one else would. She’s told me when I’m making a mistake. And she’s given me everyday support and confidence. She’s told me 10,000 times that she loves me, and she’s shared her testimony and her beliefs with me, and prayed with me even when I couldn’t. Her friendship is one of the most precious things in my life." May I now try and offer these qualities to others.
Whole Transcript of Sharon Eubank's talk...Click Here
