It’s all about Grace

My freshman year of college was good over-all. I made a lot of friends and was apart of a Christian ministry called the Navigators. I was pursuing Art and had my own dorm room. (That’s right, I didn’t have to share my space. Ha ha suckers!) Everything was going pretty well for my first year living on my own, excepted that my best friend Grace and I didn't speak. For nine months. We had a stupid falling out the summer before college and we just stopped being friends.

Who can relate? How many friends have you lost over a stupid fight? Ours was over Facebook. Yea, thank you Internet! You gotta love all the things you can say over the Internet because it deprives you of the face to face honor code. People are far more likely to be disrespectful over the Internet because the Internet has no filter. And somehow since the Internet has no filter, our brains lack one too. Question mark? What people fail to realize is that you are still responsible for everything that you type even though it didn't come out of your mouth. So go ahead and be a bitch, but you're gonna have to deal with the "No, I didn't really mean that" later. 

Grace and I went to the same college and didn't see each other once. Our paths never crossed because we both avoided each other. She literally lived down the street, we both walked the same way to campus and we probably eat in the same dinning halls at the same time. It’s funny how you can refuse to see things you don’t want to see. We choose to acknowledge the people around us or we choose not to. Seeing isn’t just believing, it’s also dealing with what is there. So if something isn’t there, you don’t have to deal with it. Right? 

Wrong. You really can’t run away from problems. I ran to college to get away from my parents and a broken heart. The pain still followed me there and I still had more feelings to get over. My parents still called and came to visit. Even worse I still had e-mails to deal with from all my sisters expressing how much we couldn’t stand our parents. 

You can not run away from your problems. Because you’re brain wont let you pretend to not remember, God wont let you pretend not to feel the pain from those memories and you wont let yourself pretend to not feel guilty for what you did do wrong. Everything catches up to us. 

It took me six months of not speaking to Grace to realize that I actually missed her. I had an uncontrollable sadness in my heart that wouldn’t leave. I had ignored the problem for as long as I could. I needed Grace back. I needed that person that I went to for everything. As strong as we humans like to think we are, we will always need company. Grace was and still is the best kind of company. She listens and gives advice. Good advice. Godly advice. She was the kind of friend who told you that you were wrong even though you didn’t want to see it. Grace was the best kind of friend. For most of my freshman year I prayed that God would bring me a new friend to confide and grow with. I did have friends who I talked to but no one really understood exactly how I felt like Grace did. Grace had dealt with true sorrow as a child which today helps her reach out, love on and be “the mom” to everyone around her. I needed her back. 

PRIDE, yes PRIDE. Pride is the root of all evil because our pride is what makes us think we are always right. My pride kept me from having Grace back in my life for almost a year. Some people go there whole lives without a certain person, love, a job, a family, good relationships, good grades or whatever, all because of their pride. My dad is loosing his house because of his pride. I lost my best friend because of my pride. Somehow we think that in being right we are free from feeling pain. But our pride actually traps us in more pain than if we just admitted we were wrong. There is freedom in acceptance, even in excepting you were wrong. 

Sometime around second semester I heard my Pastor talk about how if Christians actually acted like Christian, and had a real relationship with God earlier in their lives, then more of them would be getting married younger. Grace was getting married. From that point forward I couldn’t get her out of my thoughts. I dreamed about her, prayed about her and journaled about her. Most of all, I wept for her. I would weep on my knees at the side of my bed for direction on what to do. I had no idea how to contact her or even what to say when I did. She helped me through my brake up, broken heart and broken life. She stuck by my side when I was overly emotional and life draining. She was my BEST friend and I wanted her and our relationship back. 

Once I put down my pride and opened my heart, God was able to move. He was working in Grace and I at the same to talk to each other again. Her fiance Will did me a favor and told her that I wanted to talk to her, then she asked me out to lunch over Facebook

Grace is happily married to her high school sweetheart Will and they are the biggest light in my life. As a couple they shine for Christ. If you know them, then you are blessed. 

Grace and I still disagree sometimes but for the most part we just know when the other one is being stupid. Friends don’t let friends make mistakes. Friends pour love, Gods love, out onto each other. But most of all, friends forgive. Forgiveness can also be called Grace. Gods Grace. I will always find it ironic that my best friends name is Grace. ;)

The forgiveness that Grace and I shared for each other came so easily. Almost to easy. It wasn’t hard for us to jump right back into how close we were before. We trusted each other even though we’d hurt each other. We love each other and are always there for each other. Our friendship is the best kind of friendship.

Our friendship actually reminds me of someone… oh yea, Jesus Christ. Duh! God used Grace and I to love, hurt, more love and forgiveness. God deals with us the same way everyday. 

“There is a friend who sticks closer than family.” – Proverbs 18:24.

Isn't it a wonderful life?