Do You Feel Unfriended?

This is my last “Early Voting” day at the polls. Now onto the big finale on Tuesday. If you haven’t already – please, please vote before it’s too late. Do you need a friend to take you to the polls? Please call someone to take you or if you’re concerned about the pandemic, just drive up to the closest polling location and ask for someone to “curbside” vote you. There will be a sign out front that gives you the phone number to call. Speaking of the polls, my dear, new friend that I spoke of in a recent blog, told me yet another story. This gal is a beautiful black woman. She told me about the time when she and her friend were around 18 years ago and set out on a 600-mile road trip. They pulled into a service station for gas and were accosted by white men who were cursing at them, using the “n” word and refusing to give them gas. At one point, one of the men pulled a gun on the girls and the girls quickly drove off in a panic, crossing over the next exit to a Stuckey’s where kind people saw their panic, filled their car with gas without charge and directed them to the safest way of escape. My friend said that she could hear God say “I will never leave you or forsake you." Maybe today you too are in a panic and you don’t have a friend to help you. Maybe you feel “unfriended”. Back in the day, when we unfriended someone, we walked away, erased their name off our notebook or wrote a “Dear John” letter. Here we are decades later and we can unfriend someone with the tap of a button. Our lives are about relationships -- with Jesus and with people He’s created. Period. Good thing I’m not a god who carries a big stick. I’d be whack-a-moleying mean, hateful and ornery folks all over the place. If some of them were my friends, I would unfriend them without a second thought. Then comes along the full-volume, yet gentle voice of God, with His personal guarantee, "I will NEVER unfriend them." Argh! But, please, God! Then God’s gentle tap on my shoulder reels me back into what His grace is all about. Our God would die before He would unfriend anyone. Fact is: our God did die rather than unfriend us. “Greater love has no one than this: than to lay down one’s life for His friends." (John 15:13) Jesus didn’t leave, unlike, or unfriend a single one of his twelve closest friends. He’s not about to start with you and me. Instead, He keeps on keeping the promise He first made that He would never leave or forsake His people. He knows all about us and still loves us. This is the God who has pursued you and me since before time and Who never ever considers us a waste of time. This is a God who died on a cross to reach our hearts and souls to rescue us. We are loved – in spite of, because of, and instead of, but do we believe it? Do we believe ours is His Love Story and in His Love Story – the Lover never leaves us? My beloved friends, please let Him love you and wrap you in His grace and mercy. Just say “yes” – ACCEPT His “friend” request. He will take away all your sins, failings, fears and give you His own life – life to the full. "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." (John 10:10) You are loved!