There is a story about two friends who were walking through the woods when they thought they heard something. They turned around and saw a big black bear coming towards them. Both friends started to run when one of them stopped to change into tennis shoes.

One friend said to the other, ’You don't have time to change shoes. You can't outrun that bear!'

The other friend said, 'I know I can't outrun the bear. I only have to outrun you!

I don’t think anyone needs a friend like that, am I right?

Over the past several weeks we have been working through a sermon series entitled Friendship in the Time of Covid. The series is birthed out of my own sense of longing for my friends during these weird, crazy, and yes, unprecedented times.

There is no doubt that good friends are a blessing from God. Scripture reminds us repeatedly that we are not meant to go through life alone and without assistance.

Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother/sister is born for adversity.”

Clearly the friend in our story hadn’t taken this verse to heart.

I believe that God longs to transform us into the kind of friend who loves others unconditionally in good times and in bad. And it’s in the hard times that we need our friends the most, isn’t it? And yet it’s in the hard times that some friends decide to “run”, maybe even to other relationships that may not require as much from them.

“A friend loves at all times”… through trials, sin, bad decisions and even the isolation of Covid. God is calling us to live a lifestyle of service and grace being His hands and feet to those He has placed in our midst.

What friend is God calling you to love today with the love God has shown you? Indeed, God is a friend to each of us — a friend who will never leave us, or forsake us, a friend who would never allow us to be bear bait! That is the kind of friend God is calling us to be. God empowers us to love, serve, honour, and bless them as God has blessed us.

So who among your friends needs your help right now?

Who can you choose to serve?