Kim,

Over the years I have had to adjust my expectation of "close friendship" within the body away from an ideal of "we few, we happy few, we band of brothers" who share exclusively in every aspect of each others' lives, to one of "attempted fellowship with whoever crosses my path, as appropriate in the Lord, according to the gifts he has equipped me with, to as intense a level of discourse as they are willing to bear, as unto the Lord". Sounds like you are doing the same. Sometimes this never goes beyond a 2-minute "conversation", sometimes it approaches the old ideal, and most of the time is somewhere in between. Sometimes the wonderful happens, as when a woman and her children came to church 2 weeks ago, saying she needed to return to the Lord. Several women in the church recalled the last time they had seen her, as a girl in the after-school club, twenty years ago!!! They remembered her name, and she remembered where she could find the ones who had first started to teach her the ways of the Lord.

One of my pastors always reminds us that the Christian life is easy to imitate, but impossible to live and maintain with integrity, apart from the supernatural life of Christ in us from start to finish. His grace alone can motivate us to persevere:

When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be your supply;
The flame shall not hurt you; I only design
your dross to consume and your gold to refine.

His grace is sufficient for service;
it sets us from selfishness free
And sends us to tell to the tried ones:
"His grace is sufficient for thee;
His grace is sufficient for thee."


I pray, and am confident, that you will find continued strength to persevere in this impossible life!

1 Th 4:9 Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.



P.S. We haven't seen Steve Erkle in about 10 years! Is it still playing where you are? The kids video-taped a Laura vs. Steve skit for Mother's Day once.

In Christ,
Paul S