Friend of God

John 15:14,15 You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

While I grew up in a loving, Christian home, I knew at an early age that my faith needed to be personal; relationship with God is not automatic; the faith of my parents would not save me. At the age of 9 while attending a church boys camp, I remember making a very distinct and personal commitment to Christ and asking Him to be Lord of my life. It was definitely personal; I felt like I was walking on a cloud and could do no wrong. A couple of days later, a swat from my counselor brought me back to the reality of necessary growth. My spiritual journey as a boy and teenager was up and down and felt a bit like a spiritual roller coaster.

I was very involved and very busy during my college years at a small Christian college. Working to complete a double major in math and physics, I had very few elective classes. Extracurricular activities included traveling with a men’s choir and being president of my junior and senior class as well as president of the prayer and fasting league. I also worked a job to help pay for college.

True close friendship requires time, energy, communication, consciously and intentionally just being together in addition to heartfelt desire and commitment. During my college years I consciously looked forward to .. later…. “Lord, after I graduate I’ll be able to spend more time with You and truly get to know You.”

Immediately upon graduation, I jumped into summer school to begin working on a masters degree in mathematics. I also had a contract to teach at a small Christian college in the fall while in grad school. Time to get to know God, right?

But God is gracious …. even if it means ‘turning personal plans totally upside down’. I got my draft notice in late summer and wound up reporting for military service the next spring. Suddenly my life consisted of ‘do what you’re told’ with not much thinking required. This 22 yr old graduate student went through basic training the next summer and arrived at Fort Benning, GA in the fall of 1970 as a Pv2 01E20 math statistician (yes, this MOS is no longer available in the Army) assigned to the Infantry Board. My job now was assisting in the formulation and execution of service tests for infantry equipment, collecting data, doing the analysis and writing reports … along with a 24 hour guard duty every month or so.

With all the new discretionary time on my hands, I began spending time with God in the evenings at the chapel across the street from my barracks. When I read John 15:14,15 it was very clear to me that I didn’t really know God as a friend; I was a servant of God. I didn’t really know much about what He was doing.

It wasn’t long after, as I kept spending time with God just getting to know Him, singing His praise, memorizing scripture and focusing on His presence, that I was walking and praying and felt strongly and clearly He was saying to me, “Lauris, no longer do I call you a servant, you are My friend.”

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