Have you ever opened up to a friend in vulnerable exposure? What happened next? The response to such an action is a measure of the depth and maturity of the friendship. The concept of exposure is real. You take a risk of a bad reaction that will make you regret taking the chance. Yet you need healing or you wouldn’t have taken the risk, and sharing your story offers a loving friend to be a part of the healing process. You need to know that you are not alone, that others have struggled too, and that they are there for you. Are you able to do this for others who confide in you?

Have you been taught not to trust your feelings? Can you trust this teaching? What can you trust? Your thoughts? Have they ever been wrong? You live in an age in which rational thought is placed above everything else. Does this mean your feelings should be dismissed as irrelevant? Yet they are real for you. If feelings cannot be taken as a guide, can reasons? Have you ever known anyone to generate reasons in support of their feelings? Have you ever done so yourself? Feeling and thinking can both be sanctified as a part of your relationship with me.

Do you have many friends? Do you see them as a form of wealth that is greater than money? You have heard references to a friend of a friend that is often used in a comical sense, but friends of friends can become friends. Do you have a better source of friends than that? Do you think of friendship in a spiritual sense? I do. My disciples had been with me for years but it wasn’t until the end that I told them that I called them no longer servants but friends, and that greater love had no man than that he lay down his life for his friends.

Do you think that I am unchanging? That is a point of Christian doctrine. Has your perception of me changed? I hope so. The alternative is to think that your first impression of me was correct and complete. That is a strong assumption. Have you already seen your understanding of me change as you grow and learn? It is normal for your understanding of me to change as you change, based on the scriptures, your life experiences and your encounters with others. Be teachable and prepared to let go of old concepts when they no longer serve you.