Friendship

In the Spring of 2006 I was asked if I could lead a chapel service at the largest Christian School in our home town.  This was special for me as we were leaving for Oklahoma within a few months’ time and it would probably be the last chapel service that we would do for a while.

In the years previous to this occasion, I had been asked by another Christian School that our oldest daughter worked at, if I could come and put on a presentation with our puppets and live singing.  So I put together a small team of puppeteers I’d trained and worked with a friend who custom built us a portable puppet stage and with our Senior Pastor (who just happened to be a journeyman cabinet maker) who built a complete portable sound center for our use. 

Since that initial outreach, our program became a 3-4 times a year regular at the first Christian School for chapel services and special occasions.  We also held programs at other schools in the area as well as a couple of times at a city sponsored Family Fun Night at one of the shopping malls in town.

For each service I would individually write a program based on a central Biblical theme that incorporated group singing led by my wife and daughters and myself.  This was always the funniest part of our presentation as the students (and teachers) weren’t always used to the loud Christian rock ‘n roll and very active hand and body motions we would encourage them to perform with us!  Without fail, we would always have one (bossy) teacher go up to our sound person and implore them to turn it down!

You have to understand that I have always been one to believe that the volume helps the kids to release their inhibitions and strengthen the anointing in the room.  And while it was not blaring loud, is was NOT what some of the adults were used to!  To be honest, I finally got to the point that I simple instructed our sound people to acknowledge the teacher, and just pretend that they were turning it down… (Okay… so I was a little sneaky… but they walked away happy and the kids had a blast while receiving a great message of truth put forth in a way that captured their full attention and was presented in such a way that they understood!)

We had an additional treat in store for the students at this last Chapel Service.  Since we were about to move out of state, our new Pastor had hired another Pastor to take our place with the Children’s ministry at the church.  Well, Pastor Pat was not only an accomplished Children’s leader but also a gymnastics instructor!  So along with the singing, funny conversations with our puppets, and object lessons, Pat and I did an interactive lesson that began with him bursting through the doors of the church sanctuary and doing full-body flips down the aisle!

I was also excited as I was going to get to introduce a new song to the students.  Over the years I had accumulated many sound tracks of Christian Kid’s Rock ‘n Roll songs that we used for Children’s Church and the outreaches we did.  As time passed these music-only tracks were getting harder and harder to find.  I had finally found another source and was looking forward to leading the kids in an up-beat, fast, kid friendly version of “I am a friend of God.”  Each of these song presentations took quite a while to develop as I had to figure out simple hand and body movements that the kids would enjoy, train our song cheerleaders who the kids would follow, and then hardest of all… memorize the song myself as I led the singing part!

Our last Chapel Service at this large school was a big success!  I was more than a little disappointed though, because afterwards I felt like my new song presentation of “I am a Friend of God” didn’t really go as well as I had planned!  It turns out that it was actually too long and the kids began to poop out with all the motions they were making!  Most likely, the kids never knew it because the whole program was built on quick timing and a seamless flow between the various parts of the presentation.  But, I knew and determined to make the great rendition of this song work for the next chapel service!

Well, there hasn’t been a next service since that last one in 2006!  When we returned to our home town after three years, we were again asked to present a program for the original school, but since we were right in the midst of dealing with my wife’s health concerns and I didn’t have the same trained puppeteers and song leaders as before (they all grew up!), I had to decline the offer.

Today, as I continued to study the Word concerning how amazing our God is, I had a fleeting thought of that last service when I began to concentrate on the amazing reality that Jesus Himself calls you and me His friends!  In John 15:15 Jesus is recorded as telling His disciples that: “I don’t call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing.  But I’ve called YOU friends because I’ve made known to YOU everything that I’ve heard from my father.” (God’s Word ©)

Vincent’s Word Studies tells us that “the position of the pronoun (YOU) in the Greek is emphatic.”  In other words – You and I – are the part of His statement that is to be emphasized!  WOW!  Think on that for a while… Jesus is personally calling YOU His friend!  Proverbs 18:24 declares that “a true friend is closer than your own family.”  And Jesus is that true friend to YOU and me!  Again I’ll say, WOW!

There have been numerous times over the last few years when I have felt alone in standing in faith for my wife’s total and complete healing, but the Lord’s gentle loving presence ALWAYS intervenes and lets me know that He is my friend as I hear His words from Joshua 1:5 lovingly whispering to my heart saying that He will never neglect me or abandon me.

Don’t ever allow yourself to get to the point where you can’t hear Him reminding you of His faithful and loving friendship with you.  The noise of this world and the situations of of our daily lives may get a little loud at times, but it’s simply telling us to sing out His praise just a little bit louder and KNOW that He is YOUR friend and will ALWAYS be there for you!  Have a good day!  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”