Why Can't We Be Friends?

We've all had those kinds of friends at one point or the other (or at most points). You know those friends who are nice on the surface and lead you to believe that you are (of course) their friend, their groupie, but then, all of the sudden, they ditch you. They ignore you. They still say you're their "friend," but you know the truth. They leave you singing, "Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends?"

It's very frustrating, isn't it?

And that's how Jesus feels about us sometimes.

Think about it. At some point in his/her life, almost every Christian finds him/herself saying Jesus is his/her friend, but not really acting like it. We all still like the idea of being a Christian, but we lose faith in Jesus, feeling like "how could we need someone we can't even see? Is He even real?"  Then, like the flaky friend, we don't spend time with Jesus anymore or invite Him where we're going. We hate to admit it, but we kinda decided that our friendship was never real.  Our faith--well, we wouldn't say it exists. We're officially doubters, even though there was definitely a point where Jesus revealed Himself to us.  When we doubt after Jesus reveals Himself to us, that's when He gets frustrated. It's not out of anger, but it's out of love. He wants to be our friend because He loves us, yet we aren't feeling it. It leaves Him singing,"Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends?"  Except when Jesus asks this, it's a rhetorical question, because He definitely knows what's happening on our end of the friendship.

Now, this doesn't mean we're just all going to Hell. Some of the best Christians go through this at one point or another. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that every Christian goes through this. Way back 2000 years ago, when the disciples were trying to heal this demon-possessed boy, the father of the boy had to go to Jesus because the disciples just couldn't do it. When Jesus heard that His disciples couldn't do it, He said, "O unbelieving and perverse generation... how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here" (Matthew 17: 17). He was frustrated. It hurt Him to know that His disciples, who had been seeing Him and talking to Him face to face, didn't have enough faith to heal a boy. But this was also Jesus asking a rhetorical question, because He knew how long He'd be on earth with them and He knew that their faith wouldn't always be up to par. He still loved them despite this. Actually, I think one of the main reasons He's saying this is to show that we need Him more than He needs us.

It's to show that sometimes we will be those flaky friends of fake faith, but we still need Him and should go to Him in those times.

The disciples could SEE Jesus with their own two eyes, yet they still had issues with faith and trusting in the reality of their friendship with Jesus. So, they needed to rely on Jesus to heal the boy--to do the job they were called to do. The job they could do if they had enough faith (see Matthew 17:20).  Even if we're horrible friends of Jesus, He wants us to go to Him, and like He did for the disciples, He'll pick up the slack. He'll do what we were meant to do. He might get frustrated that we can't love Him so much that our faith just comes naturally, but His love will still be constant.

He still wants to be your friend.

He wants to be your friend forever.

[Cue "Why Can't We Be Friends?" here]

How's your friendship with Jesus going?