CURRENT THEME: New hope for 2013 (If you want to read about specific themes in this series, send me an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

DAY 4: NEW HOPE ... WITH BETTER FRIENDSHIPS IN 2013

By Benescke Janse van Rensburg

The gunfire still sounded in the distance when the soldier came to the Lieutenant. “Lieutenant,” he started, “my friend has not returned from the battle zone to camp. I think he has been wounded. I ask for permission to go fetch him.”

“Request denied, soldier,” the Lieutenant shouted without a second thought about the request. He did not want more of his soldiers to unnecessarily endanger their lives. And the chances that the soldier who was not in camp was still alive, was very slim.

The soldier, however, disobeyed the Lieutenant’s order and ran back to the battlefield to fetch his friend. On the way back, with his friend’s body in his arms, he was wounded badly. The Lieutenant was furious. “I told you your friend is dead. Now I’ve lost you both!” He continued with more compassion. “Tell me, was it worth it to risk your life to bring back a corpse?”

“Oh yes, Lieutenant,” the dying man said with a weak smile. “When I arrived at my friend, he was still alive. When I bent down next to him, he told me: ‘I knew you would come.’”

Are you a friend that others can rely upon? And do you cherish your friendships? In Proverbs 18:24 we read: “There are ‘friends’ who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.” And in John 15:12-13, Jesus said: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Let’s make 2013 a year in which we no longer isolate ourselves, but cherish our friendships. Let’s choose friends that have a positive effect on our lives. You may be amazed at how much God can accomplish in other people’s lives through you, but also how He can demonstrate His love to you through good friends in your life! God bless.

Father God, thank you for friendships. Help me to be a good friend, but also please send the right people on my path that I can befriend. I ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

** Benescke Janse van Rensburg is a freelance journalist and author of the books, Ontdek God in die stories van mense, Wysheid-oordenkings uit Spreuke and Hoop in tye van nood-oordenkings uit Psalms.