There are friendships I’ve mourned over where too much history got in the way. There were too many harsh words and broken promises and silent disagreements, and it rotted to an impatient grave. But there are others where we traveled the jagged road of reconciliation, mending wounds and untying knots and covering with grace: and on the other end of this is an ocean-deep intimacy of perseverance that couldn’t be reached any other way. We had to wrestle with the ugly parts of our nature. Demons were exposed. Secrets were spilled. Yet there is a joy in this sort of enduring friendship that goes the long distance; there’s a crazy sort of laughter with a lifelong friend that is colored by the weight of heels digging into the ground, a love that says, “I’m staying.” We see it in the cross, and we can have it now, even in a world such as this.
— J.S.
J.S. Park: Hospital Chaplain 
True that 🙂
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This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
“Perhaps the greatest blessing in marriage is that it lasts so long. The years, like the varying interests of each year, combine to buttress and enrich each other. Out of many shared years, one life. In a series of temporary relationships, one misses the ripening, gathering, harvesting joys, the deep, hard-won truths of marriage.” – Richard C. Cabot
Wishing you a marriage full of ever-ripening joys and a precious harvest of hard-won truths.
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Wonderful quote and thank you so much!
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P.S. Love, love, love the photograph.
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Happy New Year and congrats again on your beautiful wife!
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Great to hear from you and Happy New Year!
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Reblogged this on My hope is found in You.
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The theme of my life has been “stay in the room relationships” and this hits a home run for me!!!
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It’s tough but it’s very possible. Hoping for continued staying-ness in 2015.
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This is so true and beautiful, too. It’s true, the enduring, life-long, solid friendships, connections truly are the best. ❥
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These relationships are few in my experience. Maybe it is because they take so much work and a refusal to give up even when all hope seems lost. They hurt and heal and bring redemption into real time.
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I have had one friend for 37 years. She was an exchange student who came to our house from Japan. It is amazing that we can still talk about anthing. Our friendship was certainly tested when one day I flew to see her and I she discovered I that I had litterally lost everything…my children and my mind. She was there for me.
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Oh my the brain and hands are not connected this early! I hit “SEND” way too early!
I meant to type “Our friendship was certainly tested when one day unannounced I few to see “my sister” and she discovered I had lost everything…my children and my mind. She was there for me. On the other had though, I lost a friend whom I knew 18 years because I voted for Trump and ended my book with with my testimony in support of the healing power in Christ. I guess we were not friends all along if those are the dividing factors.
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