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Good morning

The American writer Elbert Hubbard, who died in 1915, once wrote ‘a friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.’

I have known my best friend for almost 40 years, and during that time she and I have grown up, gone through most of the traumas and agonies of complicated adult lives, had children, laughed and cried, and only very occasionally disagreed. We don’t see each other much as we live some distance apart, but when we do get together, the passage of time seems to disappear.

Friends, or the lack of them, is often top of the list of things which are most important to us, alongside romantic partners, family and a satisfying job. Yet we tend to presume that friendships ‘just happen’. In fact, psychologists suggest that friendships are every bit as nuanced as dating, and have a central requirement at the core. That’s the need for ‘self-disclosure.’ In other words, we begin to develop a deep and lasting friendship as we gradually reveal the truth about ourselves, our lives, our hopes and dreams, as well as our failures and fears. Never an easy thing to do.

And whilst social media seem to encourage ‘over-sharing’, it can so easily lack real intimacy. It’s probably no accident that many people of all ages report feeling lonelier than ever these days.

So God of love we pray today for the opportunity to show real friendship to someone else – the giving of our time, our attention and our true selves to another. We’re grateful for the friends we do have, and we bring our feelings of isolation and loneliness to you, who know exactly who we are, and love us just the same. Amen.