Are you ready?

I have a friend from college that I think about a lot but who I don’t keep in close contact with any longer.

I first met him during the second semester of my freshmen year. My roommate at that time introduced us and we would occasionally run into each other between classes at the Student Union.

We started out following the typical guy pattern of telling stories and trying to outdo each other until we both realized that we got along well and truly liked each other. At that point we knew we could be open with each other without exaggerating about our successes, failures, frustrations, doubts, etc.

Eventually we became good friends and did lots of stuff together like going to sporting events, dances, parties and just hanging out. It was fun. Awhile later we both pledged and joined the same social fraternity where we did a lot more of everything together, but mostly partied.

We had a lot of fun and it seemed we were always together. In fact the fraternity pledges (these were the guys invited to join the fraternity but who had not yet made it through the qualifying process) used to do skits about us being gay. No truth to that at all and my wife will substantiate that. Because we weren’t good with the women students we hardly ever had dates and thus the reason for the skits.

After graduating I moved about 40 miles away and my friend stayed in his home town where the school was located. We both eventually got married and moved to different towns – he to the Harrisburg area and I to the Philadelphia area.

When he moved back to his home town to take over the family business and have kids I started seeing him at Homecoming parties he held at his house where we talked about the great times we had when we were in school, our families, our jobs and our successes, frustrations and failures. I think we made the school years sound much better than they actually were.

Eventually he got divorced and developed other interests and stopped having the parties and I got involved with life and kids and other interests and hardly ever went up to see him.

Our lives went in different directions but a few years later we did begin to see each other yearly at a fraternity alumni golf event. Occasionally I have talked to him about God and faith and tried to encourage him. Hopefully I have not driven him away.

The reason I am writing this is a result of a statement that I heard this morning that got me thinking. The statement is ‘Are you ready to meet God?’ I don’t want my friend to come to me at the end of his life and ask me why I never asked him this question.

I don’t know if he is ready but I truly hope he is. Hopefully I have been an encouragement and not a hindrance as I am concerned for him and his kids and his grand kids.

God said he loves us and that he will always love us. We have to acknowledge him and let him be in charge. Can my friend get to that point? I believe so I but I don’t know if he wants to or is willing to relinquish control.

I will continue to pray for him and his family and my heart aches knowing he may not be with us in eternity.

I love you man and so does God!