Medway Methodist Circuit

One Church-One People

Musings from the Manse

August 2010

It couldn’t happen here, or could it? That was the reflective question posed by a national radio station reporting on the results on a new web site set up to find a friend to go out with. The scenario is that you want to go to the cinema, or the theatre, but your spouse, or best friend does not want to go, then you can look up this site, and find a friend for the evening. All the ‘friends’ have been socially vetted, in that they do not eat popcorn loudly in the cinema, nor do they unwrap sweets in the theatre! The cost of the service is £7.50p per hour plus the cost of entrance to the event.

Now if I find the whole idea preposterous, imagine my shock when informed by the reporter that this year alone over 10,000 people have subscribed to the service. I can not make up my mind if there is an excess of lonely people out there, or people with more money than sense.

Why is it so hard to find friends? Do we live in such a hectic, frenetic society that we can no longer find the time for other people? Is it that we have forgotten the art of conversation, or become so wrapped up in our own world that we no longer want to reach out to others?

In John 15;15, Jesus says “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything I have learned from my Father, I have made known to you.” This reminds me of another aspect of friendship, in that true friends keep nothing from each other, the act of sharing a secret is not the act of gossiping, but an act of intimacy amongst friends.

The web page referred to previously is not available in the UK, hence the reporter posing the question could it happen here? When we walk with Christ, there is no charge for friendship, as it was all paid for us on the cross.

Melvyn

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