A Friend For Life

I remember back in middle and high school, I was a floater. I mingled with the intellectual nerds of the school paper, spent hours a week with the lacrosse jocks, was loosely affiliated with the ‘cool’ kids through a childhood friend, and found refuge at my parent’s church with other Korean American teenagers. I came to college wondering if I would ever find true friends who would know me (the good, the bad, and the ugly), accept me, and last beyond college.

I thank God because He provided more than I asked. Pardon my nostalgia, but I wanted to share about one friend in particular.

My first encounter with Rachel was freshman year, when my older sister invited her to our apartment for dinner. I remember thinking, “She’s one of those goody-two-shoe Christian girls that my sister is reaching out to.” I didn’t stick around for that dinner.

The next couple years we saw each other from afar at various church gatherings. Then, junior year we both started serving as small group leaders, and were put together as accountability partners. And the rest is history.

We continued as accountability partners for the next 6 years, and then lived together as roommates for a year. Over that time, we went through highs, lows, and really-really lows. I experienced true vulnerability as I confessed (for the first time to a friend) insecurities about my self image, family, future, and relationships, and listened to her open up her life to me as well.

We struggled through college graduation, job-searching, life-purpose-searching. We became partners at work as we tried to start a school together. I blind-carbon-copied (bcc’ed) her when I emailed that boy that I liked so that she could monitor for excessive smileys and subliminal messages.

We’ve dreamed, kayaked, prayed, hot-tubbed, made late-night trips to kinkos, traveled abroad to Canada for dim sum together.

And as she leaves to take part in a church plant in Austin, Texas, I’m thankful because I’m certain that God has brought us together as sisters in Christ, friends and partners in Kingdom work - not only in the past, but wherever He takes us in the future.

And it all started with a simple prayer, back at the beginning of college: “God, please provide a true friend who will walk with me for the length of this journey.”