THE COMPANY WE KEEP Reaching our full potential by the company we keep We dont like certain behavioral patterns that have become habitual, so we feel helpless in our attempt to change. Our growth as Christians is often fraught with failure, and we seem to find ourselves stuck. Our spiritual journey to God feels more like a treadmill, and our movement forward only seems like progress, yet we notice the scenery is remaining the same. Sometimes the only way to move forward is to commit to changing our environment, and we notice that the friendships we have might perhaps be the very thing that keeps us from moving ahead. Back in the 1960s I hung around with a group of friends in Berkeley, California, where wed gather in a coffee house, talking about the poetry books we were going to publish, and the novels we were going to write, but all we did was talk. One day, one of our group of young bohemians announced he was no longer going to come to the coffee house, having decided it was just a waste of time. If he was ever going to make something of himself, he told us, he would have to make the break. He wanted to go to medical school, and decided all his energy needed to be focused on completing his college degree with the best grades he could possibly get. We all tried to convince him that he could accomplish all of that without abandoning the coffee house scene, but he all the more adamant. That was the last evening he ever joined the rest of us, and the next time I saw him, hed been accepted into medical school. His decision to walk away from the rest of us haunted me, for deep down I knew he was right. My life was going nowhere, and I was feeling increasingly unfulfilled, both spiritually and intellectually. Within six months I made the decision to move to Portland, Oregon, for a fresh start. Abandoning those friends was the best decision I could have made, for none of us was motivated to go beyond that Telegraph Avenue coffee house ghetto that had snared us. Sometimes the only way to make the changes that are needed is to walk away from relationships that are keeping us from reaching our full potential. As Christians, it does make a difference who we hang out with, and if the company we keep is preventing us from following Gods plan for our lives, we have to end those friendships. Having relationships with fellow Christians is the only way we can keep ourselves focused, and make sure we are allowing Gods plan for our life to be fulfilled. If we want to deepen our faith, we need to spend time with people who desire the very same thing. We can build a stronger relationship with Christ by spending time with people whose values are the same. If we waste our time with people who are pursuing worldly pleasures, well end up just like them. The time God has allotted us must not be squandered. If we keep company with people whose goals are to please God, and whose lives are centered in Christ, our goals will be the same, and we will grow as Christians. With love in Christ, Abbot Tryphon
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 03:44:42 +0000
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