Unka Glen's Citadel of Enlightenment

One of the toughest things we deal with in our Christian faith is when our Christian friends, the people we fellowship with, end up taking a major left turn in their lifestyle. Here’s an example sent in recently:

I have a friend that has been one of my closest for years and we’re into a lot of the same things. But recently, she’s been changing. Popularity and “fun” are her biggest concerns. She started drinking and experimenting with drugs and has gotten way too physical with a few guys. I’m not saying I’m perfect, but this totally isn’t her. Also, her attitude has changed. She’s defensive and self centered most of the time. How do I love her through this when I don’t even enjoy being around her anymore?

Here’s another similar story:

My best friend and I are both juniors in high school. She runs to boys for comfort, and now it’s gone too far. She told me how she had sex with this guy, and she’s not ashamed. I don’t know how to be a friend to her right now. She doesn’t respond well to confrontation, and I would hate to betray her trust and tell a mentor or something. What’s the right thing to do? How can she love the Lord and do this? How can I be a Godly friend to her when I kinda feel like she betrayed me?

On one hand you feel like you set out to walk a difficult path, and you did the smart thing and gathered good believers around you, but when one of those traveling companions leaves the path, it seems all that tougher to walk. Thus, we feel WE are the victim of this behavior.

The truth of course is that our friends don’t owe it to us to live their lives any certain way, and for that matter, it’s pretty tough to witness to someone effectively when we’re feeling resentful of them. Some of the pushback and defensiveness you experience might be a reaction to YOUR feelings of betrayal, and maybe a bit of anger you may be feeling.

The bad news is, the further you go in your walk, the fewer companions you’ll have. The good news is, those companions will be more and more amazing.

But as amazing as any of these companions will be, we have to remember to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on JESUS… so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Heb. 12). The more we grow, the more we learn to rely on God himself.