Getting Over It

"Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God."

Romans 15:7, King James Version

The version of the above verse, which was given to me yesterday by Chuck (my husband's brother,) uses the word "accept" instead of "receive," but I love seeing what words the old King James version uses to convey the same message.

Here, Paul is commanding the church in Rome to accept one another, in the same way that Jesus accepts us. The Greek word used in the original text is proslambano, which means: "to take to one's self, to take into friendship." The Roman church was apparently made up of both Jews and Gentiles, who just weren't getting along. Paul insisted that they all find a way to be friends.

Friendship came up in my bible yesterday when I was reading a passage in John. In it, Jesus defines friendship as a willingness to lay down your life for another person. Now, that's heavy! A bit too heavy for this culture, which defines friendship quite often by how much "texting" we do to a certain person or how much "face to face" time we spend with someone.

For me, it's about something that's scary to talk about. But isn't giving up your life for someone pretty scary? It has to do with friends I've made with people who have cancer. The problem with having friends who have cancer is that terrible fear which surfaces in the mind despite all efforts to vanquish it. The fear that the friend might not survive. How will I feel, if that happens? Since survival is a concern for anyone, including myself, where cancer is concerned.

Then I realized that I can "lay down my life" or set aside my fears of losing someone just by continuing a friendship with someone who is sick. This is not as easy as it sounds. For, I hate to say it, but I've been abandoned by many old friends that I think just couldn't bear up to the pain of possibly losing me. Either that or they just let me go, since it was easier and, perhaps, not as scary.

I'm okay with that now. Since I know that I have probably done similarly in the past to others that I knew who were sick...and I didn't even realize it. If you haven't been through sickness, it's really hard to "get" what it's like. Now that I know, I know I'll do better. It is more than torture to be rejected by anyone when you're going through cancer. But I understand. Because I've been there and didn't even realize what I was doing that wasn't helpful to the person who was sick.

But God is good and I've got a new perspective. Sick people may be "scary," but Jesus commands us to get over it. And that's what I want to do: get over it.