The Wounds of a Friend

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My heart went out to my friend as I watched a tear gently make its way down her beautiful face.  As she struggled to find the words to say, I sensed that this pain and sorrow ran deep.

God had our paths cross way back in college and for that I am so grateful.  We were kindred spirits and in love with our man.  Marriage, kids and different callings found us distant from each other but as I sat across the table from her, it was as if the years had melted away and we were just two kindred spirits in love with our man (with a few other men thrown in for good measure – our children).

As she shared the betrayal she had experienced at the hand of a friend, I felt her pain resonate deep in my soul as I reflected on a long ago severed relationship of my own . . .

This friendship treachery cuts like a dagger into the very heart of who we are.  It feels like a mortal wound, which leaves us wondering if we will ever recover from it.  In my own experience, it took years for the pain to dull but I’ve found that it never quite goes away.

I was reading in  the Psalms the other day and ran across this passage of Scripture.   My heart was inexplicably joined with David’s heart (just like I was joined to my friend’s heart) as his words echoed the cry of my soul. 

It is not an enemy who taunts me – I could bear that.  It is not my foes who so arrogantly insult me – I could have hidden from them.  Instead, it is you – my equal, my companion and close friend.  What good fellowship we once enjoyed as we walked together to the house of God.

But I will call on God, and the Lord will rescue me.  Morning, noon and night I cry out in my distress and the Lord hears my voice.  He ransoms me and keeps me safe from the battle waged against me, though many still oppose me. . . As for my companion, he betrayed his friends; he broke his promises.  His words are smooth as butter but in his heart is war.  His words are as soothing as lotion but underneath are daggers! 

Give your burdens to the Lord and he will take care of you.  He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.  Psalm 55:12-22 (NLT)

Have you experienced the excruciating pain of a friend’s betrayal in your own life?  Do you find it difficult to breathe or get out of bed?  Is it taking everything in you not to send the daggers flying in their direction?

It is so easy to allow bitterness to take root in our life, to set up walls of protection to guard against ever experiencing that kind of pain again.   And we end up drinking the poison we had intended for our perfidious friend to drink.

Look at what God promises and claim them as your own: 

He promises . . .  

 -  to rescue you

  - to hear you when you call

  - to protect you in the midst of the battle

  - to not let you slip or fall

Jesus knows the throbbing ache of a broken friendship; he experienced gut-wrenching betryal at the hands of Judas, one of his closest and dearest friends. 

He knows, He understands and He’s waiting to hear your heart’s cry and to walk hand and hand with you through the storm.