I read a story last night that brought me to my knees. A children’s story. The book is called Do You Want a Friend? by Noel Piper, available for free as a PDF from Desiring God. The line that hit me most was this:

“Maybe you have lots of friends. But can any of them do ALL these things ALL the time? No. Jesus is the only friend who is everything we need. There is no friend like Jesus.”

I was simultaneously smiling and crying to myself as a read this last night. I realized how powerfully simple and true those words are.  It was a rock of comfort in the sea of the complete unknown.

I graduated from college about two weeks ago. With that comes a whole new world: the post-college world.  I’m glad to have accomplished college, by God’s grace.  But as I sat last night in my aunt’s guest room, I felt a bitter panic creeping up on me. My housing situation for next year is unsure.  My job prospects have fallen through. The comfort of having my friends all right down the hall from me is no more.

With living in the unknown comes the peaceful assurance of a friend. A friend who knows my need, knows the anxiety that is very tempting to embrace, and knows my situation. A friend who walks with me through a new chapter of life, and one that I believe will be okay by His grace.  A friend who provides for me, perhaps not in the way I would have wanted, but in the way that makes himself most gloriously known to me.

And so I’m thankful. My unsure footing is being shored up by the rocky foundation of God’s grace and love for me. It certainly has not turned out the way I had it planned in my own small thinking.  I’m not sure quite how it will turn out.  But I know I walk with a friend who is faithful to lead me, who loves me, and will provide for me in ways I can’t see right now.

I head off to Africa next week, and I don’t know what lies on the other side. But the task right now is to go to the other side of the world to make my friend Jesus known to a people who see him simply as a good teacher. And so I go, miserably weak, yet gloriously empowered by my friend Jesus to do what he has for me next: to make him known.