We've heard how the heat of battle can take mere soldiers and turn them into soulmates. Somehow, the fire of affliction fuses a bond between those who might, under "normal conditions," overlook or even avoid each other.
It seems the strongest and most enduring friendships are not necessarily the oldest ones. They're often those forged in the furnace of adversity. Maybe this happens because emergencies heighten our senses and, at the same time, make us vulnerable. Tough challenges reduce our reserve. They disarm our defenses. They ripen our hearts for relationship and lay our souls open to intimacy.
Sometime, we're so wounded that we'll take help from anyone. Like a drowning victim, we thrash and choke and beg for air. Then, out of nowhere, comes a hand. At that moment, we don't care whose hand it is or where it's been. It's all we've got, so we grab it. And once we're on land and breathing again, we shake that hand until our arm falls off. That hand was our hope. And a relationship blooms from a rescue.
Crisis breeds camaraderie. It turns total strangers into cherished confidants. We're relieved to discover someone whose experience bears a striking resemblance to our own. It gladdens us to know we're not alone. We will always enjoy our childhood friends-the ones we lived next door to or met on the playground in second grade. But when we grow up, our needs change and God provides friends of a different kind-friends who are formed in the School of Hard Knocks, companions who've come from the classroom of life.
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