FRIENDS FOREVER..

WHAT CONSTITUTES A FRIEND?

I ask this in earnest. The term seems to be as amorphous as the definition of Love, which has as many different meanings as there are people.

Is a friend a person who is always pleasant to be around? someone who always says hi, always seems to be glad to see you, and looks for ways to hang out with you?
Is it a group thing, this friendship, where there are group dynamics involved, leaders and followers, discreet rules of friendship to follow, invisible hierarchies present at all times, pecking orders....rare or common...

Tell me.

I'm not one to make "friends" easily, no matter the definition. Never have been, really, from my earliest memories. After endless hours of contemplating the reasons this might be, I kind of eventually gave up, thinking that easy friendships, whatever they were, were just not meant to be part of my life. Call it a personality issue, whatever, it's just me.

Which makes a friend, a true friend, especially precious to me, when he finally appears.

About a dozen years ago, my wife and I began a journey in a new church direction. Catholic for most of my life, I felt a real hunger the day I began my new relationship with Jesus Christ, on a night in September, 1990, at a Young Life camp at Saranac Lake. For the next few years we tried to make it work at St. James Catholic Church, but the hunger never abated.

Some years later, our daughters tried a new place out, Eastern Hills Bible Church, in Manlius, NY. Now, a "Bible Church" really wasn't what we were looking for, at least that's what I thought. But the kids were all lit up, especially about the exciting new music they were making during worship.
At the time, I had been involved in the guitar group at St. James, but the music we were putting out there was, well, just a little boring. At best. We've always loved worship, always been involved in some active way...So, new sounds sounded pretty good to me.
We tried Eastern Hills out one Sunday...and never loooked back! By that time, there were a few worship teams working. The sound was so fresh and exciting, that we were immediately home. In fact, I was so blown away by the quality of worship, that I was afraid to join them. I waited over a year, when the worship team leaders, the Cases, announced that some teams were leaving, and that there was a real need for new worship leaders to step up, before I approached Steve and Sue.
I think they maay have been a little hesitant to , well, trust me at first. Folks who know me sometimes wonder where I'm coming from...is this guy for real, or just a show off ham bone lookin' for a crowd...
Anyways, I apprenticed a year with the Cases before I was allowed to lead for the first time. It wasn't always easy. Until then I had pretty much gotten away with some fairly mediocre singing. Now the Cases were on my, err, case. When I missed a note, I heard about it. "Try to land on the note from above (you big dummy)" was an oft heard expression. And for me, spoiled up until then by people glad to get a warm body up there to sing, this came a little hard. Eventually, Steve told me that a few singing lessons from Sue wouldn't hurt. Hmmm...not you, I thought...ahhhhh....okay...maybe it would end the gap I felt between me and them. So, I tried it.
Sue started with total basics. Breathing, phrasing, posture, not forcing, easy on the tremolo, man....she hit it all. I, at age 42, began to learn to sing. Not easy to teach this old dog new tricks. But her enthusiasm was catchy, and her communication methods foolproof...she made me understand technical moves almost instinctually. The first thing I noticed was the loosening of my throat, a lessening of tension. I began to be able to sing whole sets without getting a sore throat...amazing, because this was always a problem for me. It took Sue one lesson to fix it. Wow...

Okay...too late to make a long story short, but this was the beginning of what became the finest friendship I have known. Through trial, error and eventual success, the Cases and I, and my daughter Jess became partners in Ministry. Over the years Jess and I were priveleged to experience, over and over again, the guidance and creativity of the amazing Cases. Between them, Steve and Sue must have written dozens of scripts, hundreds of songs...and kept over 60 musicians organized and in use.
But, most importantly, they never lost a heart for us. Never.

Things have changed for them. And for us. Eastern Hills opened a new, much larger Church a little over a year ago. The new building presented a new set of challenges. For us, it lost the feeling of home we felt the day we entered the old church so many years ago. The old hunger began anew..and brought us to a sister church in a new place...much smaller, more intimate, with a wonderful preacher and worship teams much like ours used to be...home again.
And, through God's amazing, mysterious ways, Steve and Sue Case are there, in the new church, beginning the amazing work that they do so well...
I had lunch with Steve yesterday. Before we left, we prayed together, and I thanked God...for the work being done in Steve and Sue's lives, for the awesome way He has lifted them up, saw Steve ordained Minister, and especially for the amazing, enduring friendship that he has blessed us with.

Rare indeed.

YOU GET THE POINT!!