“Are you writing your blog?” asked a cheerful voice I’d recognize anywhere.
“I don’t want to interrupt, but I do want to say hello, Sweetie,” my beautiful friend Ana continued, as she sat beside me at the little round table in the taekwondo school where our sons have practiced together for years.
I finally looked up, still scowling, still hunched over my laptop, and ignoring my daughter, who was now reaching across the table to slowly push down my screen and force an end to my misery. She too, wanted to rescue me.
“Yes,” I conceded. “I’m trying to write a piece about the presidential election.”
Ana’s eyes grew wide and everything I needed to know was right there in her expression.
“I know. It’s a bad idea. And I’m so, so frustrated!!”
I had been writing and rewriting the piece for hours, obsessing and rehashing, all the while feeling angry and uninspired – all of which are warning signs for me that I’m not in a good frame of mind and shouldn’t be writing on the topic. But was I paying attention to the little warning bells going off in my head? No.
Ana could see that, I’m sure. Because I probably looked like this.
It’s a small wonder she approached me at all. But she’s a brave one. So she then proceeded to do what good friends everywhere do.
Commiserate. Empathize. Act as a Sounding Board. Encourage. Divert from the Source of Tension. And Ultimately – Pull Me Out of the Muck.
And the stuff I was writing about? Well, “muck” is a nice work for it, isn’t it?
My friend reminded me to look for the positive. And in that moment, I just couldn’t do it on my own. So God sent her to me.
Today, I just want to thank the Lord for my friend Ana, and remind you that if you’re trying to figure it all out on your own, you’re working too hard. We were never meant to be alone. We have each other. By Divine design. Let somebody who cares about you defuse you today.
When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. (Job 2:11)
