depth.

Upon my visit to New Jersey, a good friend's mother said, "Your true friends are the ones with whom you can just pick up where you left off, no matter how long it's been since you last talked." Now, my first mental reaction was to contradict that statement with something along the lines of, "No, your true friends are the ones that are with you through everything in life. You never grow apart." I hadn't even thought about that again until tonight.

Tonight, an old friendship was regenerated. Amanda Scotto and I were the best of friends for about six months during our freshman year. On the last day of school, she left for Florida, where she lives now. The last few months of her life in Jersey, she kind of withdrew herself from her friends. Perhaps she thought that if she left home with no attachments, the move would be easier on her. Whatever the case, we lost touch.

The friendship we shared was a very special one to say the least. We exchanged deeply personal experiences with one another--ones that we had never told anyone else. We discussed core elements of life and what life is about. We laughed. We cried. We promised. We talked. We listened. We supported. We loved. And then it all stopped. All except the love.

Many people's actions seem to be based on the belief that love relies on the frequency of contact with a person. While I believe that frequent contact with good friends is very good, I'm also making the point that love within friendships can be solid with lack of constant conversation. When you develop a love for and learn to love a person, I believe that that love can be tapped into for the sake of regenerating an old friendship.

So perhaps it is not how often you talk, but how deep you've gone.

trying times.

walking through fire and i can't see you anywhere. what ever happened to the day you promised you'd never leave? oh, i'm trying to see the good in all of this. what ever happened to when you said your burden was light? i'm blinded by this life and you don't seem to be shedding any light.

give me your eyes, that i might see traces of you among the blood and sweat and tears that i've cried. give me the faith to say that you are good, though you may seem to be much different than you are. help me to know this life is a vapor in the wind; two more days and i could be saying my last words. give me the strength to proclaim you are alive, for i can feel you breathing your life into me.

goodness.

Last night I came to a conclusion. I texted a good friend:

"The moon is orange tonight."
"That's how it was the other night! I loved it."
"Yeah, I love nighttime."
"Me too. But my favorite is in the summer around 6 or 7 o'clock on the beach."
"That's the best time to be alive."
"You're right."
"Life is good."

Life is good. What a flippant little phrase we just toss around. It's on bumper stickers, hats, t-shirts. But last night, after I texted that statement, I thought about what was just said. And I came to two conclusions.

One: Life IS good. "There is only One who is good." Jesus said it himself. "For by Him all things were created. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Paul said it. Now, if we agree that "all things" encompasses the scope of life, we're getting somewhere. All things exist through the One who is good; therefore, life must always be good. Not always preferable, but always good. Just like getting a cut cleaned out--not always preferable, but always good.

Two: I made another pretty big statement just one text before that. "That's the best time to be alive." When I said that, I had not yet thought of everything in the paragraph above. But I thought about it afterwards. God is the same, today yesterday and forever. He never changes. If I can stand on the shoreline, mid-July, watching th color transform into a radiant canvas of lights, and conclude that it is, in fact, the best time to be alive, I should just as quickly jump to that conclusion as I am driving through downtown Chattanooga on a raining Monday afternoon. Why? Because, the same Lord that is on His throne on that mid-summer's evening is on His throne on that rainy, dismal day. Though our circumstances may be altered, God is constant. Therefore, I say it is always good to be alive.