A friend and brother

At Bret's wedding

Today is my brothers’ birthday. My older brother Chris and my brother from a different mother. Not that I have a half-brother. Bret is not really my brother. But he is truly my brother. He is the one who introduced me to Jesus and showed me what it means to do just that (introduce others to Jesus). 

Bret and I have been best friends since 9th grade. We have shared a love for science fiction and tastes in music. We have played in bands together, driven all over the country together and grown in faith together. He loved me enough as my best friend to tell me something that cut me to the core. And because of that I was able to go to God’s word and find out that I really did need forgiveness and salvation. 

We don’t see each other in person very often. Ever since meeting up again at our York College reunion in 2017, however, we DO see each other almost every week. We share a video call each week, touch base and pray for each other. I can talk about how God is using us and challenging us here, about our kid's lives, or about the newest story idea I have heard or book I have read. He can talk about his two little girls, his pregnant wife, his writing or his work with the congregation where he preaches. Across the miles (or kilometers) we remain not only best friends, but truly brothers. 

Cherish the people God has put in your life. Be for those around you the grace that God has brought into your life. I am so thankful for how God can change lives completely using such imperfect tools (us) in such amazing ways. Then again, this is God, who through Jesus calls us friends. He knows what it means. 

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.You are my friends if you do what I command.I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:12-15