We really do need each other
August 30, 2023
By Jeff Becraft
I was pulling laundry out of the dryer last Saturday morning and it reminded me of a friend of mine named Johnny. Now, his name really is Johnny. I don’t just call him Johnny like I do with a lot of other people. He’s the original Johnny… and he is one of my best friends on the whole planet.
The reason pulling laundry out of the dryer reminded me of Johnny is that years ago our dryer broke. Being one of my mentors, Johnny came over to help me fix it. (The reality is that I watched Johnny help me fix the dryer.) It needed a new heating element. I basically handed Johnny stuff and got in the way.
The dryer is now over 30 years old… and it’s still kicking. And that’s a good picture of what friends do for one another. Friends keep us going. That’s why friends are so important. They help keep our lives on track and refresh us so that we keep kicking.
That’s why it is so important to pick the right friends in our lives, particularly for young people. People that really know us, really love us and will help keep our lives on track.
We need other people in our lives because sometimes it’s not a heating element that goes bad and needs to be replaced… sometimes it is things that are deep inside of us. It could be a deep hurt or deep disappointment or deep discouragement or a deep wound. And we need other people to help us regain perspective. We need friends to help pick us up to encourage us and to keep us going. None of us were created to just take on life’s challenges on our own.
We really do need each other.
Jeff Becraft is the Interim Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Youth Corps is a life-changing leadership development experience that inspires high school students to be leaders in the Midlands and beyond. You can connect with Jeff at [email protected].
