The Art of Standing Friendship
A little while ago I had the opportunity to reconnect with an old friend. We were friends back in high school which for me was some time ago (insert your own old guy joke here). His name is Cory and he is a great artist. He recently (March 26th) had his Film, “A Pinter’s Odysseyâ€? premiered on Bravo! Television. This is a film that grew out of Cory’s “COAST To CANVAS” project. My older brother found out about this world television premier and emailed me the details. I went to Cory’s web site to find out the details and to see what my old friend had been up to. I was amazed with his work – after all I haven’t seen Cory in about 20 years – he has gotten better!
Many old memories came back from my high school days. I lived about 20 minutes from the church I attended at the time and most of my Christian friends didn’t go to my high school – in fact I didn’t know of too many Christians in my high school at all – until I met Cory. I honestly can’t even remember how we met – it was obviously not that dramatic. I do remember however feeling stronger and more confident in my faith knowing there was someone like me – someone who knew God in my school. We went to different churches – different youth groups – even different denominations but we still served the same God!
Many years have passed – we had gone our separate ways – Cory went to Sheridan College and I went to Ontario Bible College (now Tyndale) – Cory worked as a commercial illustrator and later as a painter – I worked in facility management and now in web development. We met our wives and married – had kids – lived busy full lives.
On March 26th I thought I would give Cory a call – after reintroductions and a quick look in the old year book we were reconnected. We filled each other in on the missing years and what we were doing now – looked back at some old fond memories. Before we got off the phone I really wanted to let Cory know something – now guys are not always as open with sharing their feelings so this was a stretch for me – I want Cory to know how much our past friendship meant to me in that time. I wanted to let him know that I was stronger in my faith because he was standing beside me. We didn’t start crying – we are guys! But we chatted a little bit about what that means to teens to have someone else – someone like them in their school – in their circle of friends. It means a lot.
I am not sure where you are at – in high school – a leader in a youth group – a youth pastor? What I do know that is that you need others to stand with you – to pray with you and for you – to challenge you in your faith. That is what the church is for – gathering together to build each other up in faith – in your relationship with God. Don’t try to stand alone.
Cory thanks for being a friend – for standing with me through those years in high school. Hopefully some day we can get together again in person – I can have a closer look at your art work and we can encourage each other in our faith.
If you would like to see some of Cory’s work drop by his web site at www.trepanieroriginals.com
Originally posted on: YouthPoint.ca