intentional friendships

This past weekend, I traveled to meet and stay with Analise, who is also on activation route (the group of people I will be serving with in Guatemala, South Africa, Cambodia, and Thailand) with me. And let me tell you, it was amazing. We kept telling each other how crazy it was, because it truly is crazy. How many seventeen year olds are driving six and a half hours to meet a random girl that they will be living with in four other countries for nine months. It really is hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this is my life. 

Now back to my title, intentional friendship, by intentional i don’t necessarily mean friends you spend intentional time with or that you do intentional things for—i mean the friends that God intentionally placed in your life. The people that you might not have been friends with if it was not for some weird or crazy circumstance that could only be explained by the fact that you said yes to God and he brought you to them. Because let’s be honest, Analise and I would have never crossed paths if God had not called us to serve on World Race Gap Year. But your version of an intentional friendship probably is not this crazy, but just as valuable. For instance, I went to a new school for senior year and am now friends with people I would have never met if God had not shown me my time at my old school was up. Intentional friendships are surrounding us, we just have to say yes to God to find them.

You are probably wondering why I’m putting such an emphasis on the word intentional, but it is because God does not do things by accident. The people that God places in your life, they are there for a purpose. You might be helping them, they might be helping you, or you might be growing together. Whatever the case may be, God put them there for a reason, and it’s your job to figure that reason out. 

I’m going to give you a more indepth example of an intentional friendship God has given me, and maybe it will help spark you to find the intentional friendships in your life, and say yes to the way God is using them. One of my first intentional friendships is with a girl I met in the 5th grade while attending a church camp, Travyn. I thought she was the coolest person ever, and she definitely was don’t worry, but she was more than that— she was a living and breathing light for Christ, and she might not agree that’s what 5th grade Travyn was, but just by watching her, I could tell. I could tell that she had an intentional relationship with God, and that’s what I wanted. We then stayed in touch and met back up at camp year after year, until we were going into highschool and were too old for this camp. But God had a funny way of working that out, because he brought us back together when we staffed The Happening of Mississippi, a Christian retreat for 10th-12th graders, together in February of 2020. We hung out non stop until she left for World Race Gap Year this past September. This is my favorite example of one of my intentional friendships. I would have never met or become such good friends with her if God had not placed us in the same place at the same time over and over again. She taught me so much, about how to truly live to be a light for Christ and how to embody what it means to be the hands and feet of Christ. God placed her in my life for so many reasons and I am so thankful for her and our friendship. Fifth grade me could not have talked to the blonde girl with a twin who picked the bunk under me that got to camp two hours late, but I did. And I’m so thankful I did. 

So look at your friends, close and far, and see who God is calling you to be an intentional friend to. Say yes to God when he brings new people into your life, it can be scary, but it’s so rewarding. And learn to be okay when God takes people out of your life, it just wasn’t the season for that friendship. Next time you feel a tug on your heart to talk to a new person, give someone your time, or even offer someone the last cookie, remember, God could be calling you to be an intentional friend to them. All you have to say is, “Yes, Lord, use me.”

Your Sister in Christ,

Madeline Honea