69. He Calls You His Friend

John 15:15

How many of the dumbest things you’ve ever done have come straight from a place of insecurity? If you went through and listed a few of the biggest, fattest, most ridiculous regrets from your life, how many of them could be traced back to you feeling down on yourself in some way? I know that in my life, every messed-up relationship, every immature cruelty and every out-of-bounds sexual disaster were all because I was insecure and wanted to know if anyone liked me, wanted me or thought I was cool. My thought process was something like this: “If I’m crazy enough, or go far enough down this road, then people will want to know me. They’ll want to be my friend. The girls will want to be with me.” Now, in Sunday school they might tell you, “Boys and girls, this doesn’t actually work. No one thinks you’re cool because you’re bad or crazy or wild.” Let me just say, that’s not actually true. It really does work. It works like a charm. If you’re bad enough and wild enough, you’ll be the talk of the town and some people will want to be your friend just because of your reputation. The only problem is, it’s not worth much. They’re not really your friend, are they? They’re just latching onto the rep. And soon, it’ll all be over and you’ll be 35 with a mortgage and it’s just not cool to be drunk all the time anymore. You know, Jesus calls you His friend, but it’s not because you’re cooler than other folks. He calls you His friend because He deeply, honestly loves you from the heart. You can’t earn or lose that kind of friend.