My Wild Friends

Proverbs 28:7 ‘Young people who obey the law are wise; those with wild friends bring shame to their parents.” NLT

This proverb intrigued me. At first I thought, ‘This doesn’t apply to me-obviously.” Young or not so young, the more I thought about it, I realized I might still have some ‘wild friends’ in my life.

I thought about the friends I hung out with in High School. You could make a case that we were ‘wild’. At the very least, keeping the law, was not our main concern.

My friends were important to me. With them, I felt secure and comfortable. They influenced me and I influenced them. Our choices were of course stupid and self indulgent. Wether we knew it or not, we were all working very hard to establish an identity, a path to follow. As well, we were establishing life long habits of pain management, character development and life direction.

Lately, I have been trying to identify my ‘wild friends’ by asking myself:

Where am I getting my security these days?

What brings me comfort?

What face do I want the world to see?

How does Jesus want to be my real friend?