Friendship

Stevie Ray Vaughn the legendary blues guitarist from Texas who rocked the music scene throughout the 80s with his gritty, soul-stirring, Texified version of classic blues and plenty of his original stuff. He has a song entitled "Life By the Drop" that is an acoustic, stripped down song compared to his other material. The song is a reflection of friendship that has been tried by distant, difficulties, and substance abuse. One of the lines always sticks with me...God it's good to be here walking together my friend. That line and the end of the song are filled with redemption and hope that leaves the listener thinking about his or her own friendships. I am always reminded of my best friend, who happens to be my beautiful wife and the friendship that blossomed and grew through all these years, nearly 12 that we've been together. In less than 48 hours we will be parents to not only one little girl but two. Our friendship often brings to mind this song lyric because there is no one I would rather be walking through life with than Cyd. The good, the bad, the funny, the sad, the joys of children, the heartache when they hurt...the times of stress when we are both exhausted but still have parental duties to do, the times that we can slip away for a few hours to enjoy each other and the love and friendship that God has blessed us with. There are many marriages in our world that are not based on friendship, which is why I am so thankful that mine is. I guess the warning sign was that we basically dated for about 6 months but we wouldn't call it that, we said we were "just friends."

This song also makes me cherish the times that I have with other friends and the situations that I get to walk alongside them with. Friends who are getting married, friends who are struggling with life and the situations that it has brought them, friends who hurt because other friends are hurting, friends who like us are celebrating life all over again, and friends who are just trying to make it day to day. Isn't that all that any of us can do? Our hope is in God to sustain us. The catch is he does it day by day not weekly or monthly. Remember the manna that God provided in the desert for Israel. It spoiled overnight so that they would learn to trust God to provide daily for their needs. Many of my friends and I are learning that art of trusting God daily...it's not easy, but "it's good to be walking together my friends."