We started our new series, “Who Ya Gonna Call?” this past weekend. I got some great ideas from a book by Leonard Sweet, 11: Indispensable Relationships You Can’t Be Without. Here’s a great quote from his chapter on Barnabas:

“Do you have a Barnabas, a peer-encourager who is someone to hold up those tired and weary arms; someone to add a hand when you rarely or barely hear the sound of one hand clapping; someone who gives you permission to fail, permission to write a bad first draft; someone who can remind you that God gives us a portion adequate for us to make it through the day; someone who can dare you to remember that the God who called you to life is that same God who called you to ministry; someone to remind you that you have the privilege of loving for a living;  someone who, when life takes your breath away and you hold it in, will slap your back and “inspire” you with the enlivening Spirit who makes you want to breathe again; someone who will lift you up when you’re road-whipped, world-weary, bone-tired, blood-thin, when you feel buttonholed and browbeaten; someone who will encourage you when you’re tempted to think that the only difference between yogurt and the church you’re a part of is that yogurt has active, living culture?” (Sweet, Leonard,11: Indispensable Relationships You Can’t Be Without)

Actually, the question is not JUST, do you have one of these friends? But…are you that kind of friend??

“Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family.” (Proverbs 18:24 MSG)