If you'd like to watch, click on Pastor Squatch Musings!

Olive oil and incense bring joy to a heart, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his sincere advice.

Proverbs 27:9, EHV

When confronted with the reality of our day, we often have a skewed understanding of what it means to be a friend. Social media has twisted this understanding. On Facebook, we refer to all those who follow us as “friends,” but I only casually know many of those who have friended me, and some I don’t know beyond their pages. Before social media, this was a criticism of Americans referring to people as friends who were only acquaintances by some of those with whom I had become acquainted while visiting Germany. Friendship is meant to be a deep relationship between two people, not unlike in a marriage, intimate but unlike marriage without any sexual intimacy. Most often, we see these friendships described in the Bible, like the deep friendship of David and Jonathan. It is good to have such relationships where each fills the other and gives of themselves. Where honesty can be shared and the advice can be trusted because each knows the others' inner workings. This is what our Lord desires for us in the Church so we can boldly live out the Gospel and be lifted when times are tough and our hearts are low. It is here, our Lord desires to give us peace.

Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.