Friends

So Jason's message this morning was all about surounding yourself with the right kinds of friends. Not in the exclusive "don't hang out with THOSE kind of people" way, but more in the iron sharpens iron", have people that you can lean on sort of way. For me it was a really timely message, and one that really hit home.

I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about how blessed I am to be surrounded with the people that God has put me around. I'm the only child of a single mother and I don't have any cousins, so all my life my friends have been as close to me as my family. In a very literal sense, my friendships are responsible for where I am today. Let me give you an example:

In the summer before 8th grade, my mom and I moved from Morganton to Statesville and I started going to East Iredell Elementary (they called it elementary, but it was 3rd-8th). I went out for the football team, but since I hadnt played on that team the previous season, I didn't have the seniority of the other 8th graders, so I got last pick of the pads and helmets.

Now lemme tell ya, in 8th grade I was a big boy - the biggest on the team - and the biggest part of me was my GIANT melon. Kids, I'm tellin ya - I had a HUGE head. And to top if off - I had this funky bowl-cut/mullet combo of hair (yeah, I had hair once). I tell you this because by the time it came around for me to pick out a helmet, there werent any left big enough for me. For the first week of pactice I played in was essentially was a yamikah with a punter's facemast on it. It gave me migranes, my chin was getting blown up - I was miserable. It was so bad, I decided to quit the team. When I told my coach, Mr. Johnson, I was quitting he said - no son - you're my starting LT, and if you quit, Jamie Dew will get murdered. So he called up the dad of one of the other guys on our team for a favor. This guy's dad just happened to be Charlie Love, the head coach of North Iredell's football team, and he was kind enough to send down a helmet from the high school for me to wear that season. It was a white helmet (like everyone else's on the team), but it had a red facemask. I stood out, and I loved it.

Now, at that time, the house we were living in was in a kind of no man's land as far as school districts go, so when I graduated from East (pink painted toenails and all) I could choose whether I wanted to be a Greyhound at Statesville HS or a Raider at North Iredell HS. Don't know that I've ever really admitted this before, but I chose North based on one thing alone - that helmet with the red facemask. I felt like I was already a Raider.

Now, that's a long, drawn out (and likely boring) story that I just tell to show how random it was that I ended up meeting the people I did (or at least it seemed random at the time). At North I met people that for the first time were true friends (not just people to play or hang out with) - people I could confide in, have thir back and know they had mine, people I loved. People I still love and know I will love forever. And through these friends I've met other people that have become just as dear to me.

Looking back over the past 15 years or so (man, I'm old) I've had lots of "friends": co-workers, awuaintences, roommates, crushes, drinking buddies... but it's this core of true friends that has gotten me to where I am today. Their encouragement, love, compassion, nagging, help and support have guided me through some pretty rough times: times when I didn't deserve the love they showed me. Like I said, I've never had siblings, but I can't fathom that a person could love a sibling any more than I love these people. Don't get me wrong, I love my family so incredibly much, but I can honestly say that I have many friends that I love just as much.

One of those people I met my first year at North was Kelley Turner. When Kelley married Jason Goins, I gained another dear friend. One day Jason and Kelley decided to invite me to come to their church in High Point. I was in a place where I had fallen out of church and was honestly just wandering through life with no real purpose - but they didn't give up on me. After a few weeks of their asking, I finally gave in. Jason and Kelley were so excited about their youth group there, and one of the first few Sundays I was there, the pastor got up and told the congregation that they were looking for some volunteers. I didn't know what it was at the time, but I heard God's voice that day, and He told me to step up and help.

It was in those youth group meetings that I met some of the other great people who I now consider dear friends. And when Jason started telling me about his vision for a new church, I think it was my involvement with that youth group that got him to ask me to come along. Several months later on a Saturday night at the Chop House, I feel like I really became a part of something special. R2 is now nearing becoming a year old - and I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful, strong, kind, giving and spiritual people that I can call friends. I'm at the same time humbled to be with them and supported by them. I feel like I truely am standing on the shoulders of giants.

The thing I love so much about surrounding yourself with these true, dear friends is that they always multiply. A few become many, and as these groups of friends become communities, everyone in them reaps the benefit. It gets better all the time.

I know this has been by far my most long winded entry, but it's probably because it's something that so important to me. I can't express enough how much God has blessed me by putting the network of friends around me that I have. The example I gave was the people at R2, but there are other networks of people I have the same level of love for: My dear friends from The Cullowhee Experience, the LA girls I met through Lisa and Carrie, and of course the girls of Davis 104, among others. I know I don't say it as much as I should, but I love you all more than I'll ever be able to show.