Stepping Out of Your Group

I have wanted to post an entry about prayer for weeks now, but I'm not going to today either. Every time that I mean to, God lays something else on my heart. Something that I myself have been learning. I think God wants me to adjust my prayer life before I post about it. But be watching for that post.

Tonight I feel like God wants me to write about something else. This post has to do with friendship. Let me explain the idea with a story.

Becka has always been one of those friendly bubbly people. She gets up every morning, goes to school, and is just bubbling and talkative. She has many friends. She jumps around from person to person and checks up on them, talks about the massive amount of schoolwork Mr. Smith gave them for math the other night, talks about the new movie coming out next week, and just random things. Most of the people in school talk to her at least once every day. The problem is, there are always a couple that seem to be left out. They are the quieter people that no one really talks to much. They are hard to make conversations with, and they aren't all that interesting to most people. Becka went home from school one day, and thought, "Oh, I'll have to talk to those other people that I don't talk to very much. Who knows, maybe they will start opening up and talking." But Becka forgets. The problem is still the same.

....On the flip side......

Jamie is a quiet, introverted girl. Most of the time she keeps to herself, watching the other people in their little groups. Or, she watches the people like Becka who seem to talk to everyone except her. She wishes that someone would come and talk to her, but she has trouble talking back to them. But maybe if people would stick around her long enough she would open up. She just longs for someone to be friendly to her and care about her long enough to even speak to her....

Okay, to the point of this post. I am an outgoing, extroverted person. Almost everyone in highschool and I talk or at least say "hi" every day. But lately I feel like God has been convicting me about acting like Becka. (BTW...Becka isn't a real person. For that matter, neither is Jamie. They are just symbols.) There are always a few people who are just normally left out of groups and conversations that I never take time to include or check up on them. Or if I do, I talk to them quickly, and then get distracted by someone or something else. That's wrong. Why? Because it's not showing the love of Christ to everyone. It choosing who I want to be friendly to and who I don't. It's selfishness because it's putting what I want to do and who I want to talk to above who God wants me to talk to. I need to start stepping out of my little groups of friends and encouraging those who aren't normally part of groups or included.

I have a couple good friends, who are generally very quiet. I'm loud and noisy, and would never have thought I would get along with quiet people. But the thing is, some of those quiet people are now my very best friends. And eventually, they started to open up and become less shy.

Let's check out what the Bible says about friends and friendliness:

*Proverbs 18:24- "A man that hath friends must first show himself friendly." First of all, in order to have friends, you need to be friendly. It works the other way too. In order to reach out to others, you need to be friendly to them. Not just your best friends.

*Proverbs 20:6- "Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable?" It's not just enough to reach out to someone and tell them you are here for them and then not even talk to them again. We need to be reliable friends to all. Be there for people when we say we will; keep up with the people we reach out to.

*1 Corinthians 8:1- "Love builds up."

*John 13:34- "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another."

*Galatians 6:2- "Bear one another's burdens."

Who do you think Jesus reached out to when He was on the earth? Did He just keep to his group of disciples and close friends and not minister to anyone else? Of course not! He reached out to the lowest people of His day. He ministered to the broken, the mocked, the shamed, the sinners...and He loved them where they were. There is no better example than the example of Christ.

The main idea of this blog post is to encourage you to start stepping out of your comfort zones and cliques and reach out to others. Start talking to people you wouldn't normally talk to. Start showing the love of Christ to more people than just your group of best friends.You will be amazed at what a difference it can make to people.