Spiritual Friendship

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…” – Heb 10:24-25

Many of our activities are still restricted due to COVID thereby keeping us socially distanced. I know this is important for health reasons, but it is really impacting the state of mind. We as a people were designed to be social – to meet together and encourage one another. We need friendship and people to be around. As Christians, I believe spiritual friendship is important. It not only helps us to be encouraged and mot “lose our minds,” but also keeps us accountable to our principles and can even push us to be successful.

Aelrod of Rievaulx discusses spiritual friendship in his Book 1: The Origen of Friendship as one where friends grow spiritually together encouraging one another in life with God. He describes the joys of having a spiritual friendship: …what joy to have someone to whom you dare to speak on terms of equality as to another self; one to whom you need have no fear to confess your failings; one to whom you can unblushingly make known what progress you have made in the spiritual life; one whom you can entrust all the secrets of your heart and before whom you can place all your plans! The spiritual friend is willing to be honest and speak truth in love offering correction where necessary to help with spiritual growth. It is good to find someone with similar interests to connect with for prayer, support, encouragement, and accountability. This is a lot like finding a partner to help you exercise or study - a way to focus on the task so that you meet your goals!

I think it is even more important in this season of isolation to find spiritual friends who can walk alongside us and give each other strength to carry on. It is important for us to make time to connect with our spiritual friends and to pray together for each other in these “dark” times. Connecting in this season may have to be through electronics like emails, Facetime, Zoom or even text messaging. But we need to make purposeful connections with others outside our families. Remember when you get down, your friends may also be down and need some encouragement! We need to cry together and then find a reason to laugh and lift each other up!