S05E040, Phone a Friend… Andy B 2 Minute Video
Have you ever heard the phrase ‘phone a friend’? While it may have been made more widely known by a popular British TV quiz show, I’ve used it and heard it for many years before that. The meaning is fairly simple – when you get stuck, you contact someone who may know more.
We all need people we can talk to – either as some form of a sounding board (I have several people like this who are happy to listen to my Andy B thoughts spilling over) or as someone to whom we make ourselves accountable.
Accountability is hugely important, and a subject for another day: we can’t force people to be made accountable! But we should be allowing ourselves to be made accountable to other people. And it is super important never to exist in a bubble of our own thoughts and feelings. That’s just inviting big and painful trouble: a different perspective can see what we can not.
I was once told by a church minister that he would act like the father I never had. He didn’t ask. He just stated that was happening. But, I had no respect for him - for a wide number of reasons, not least the fact I didn’t know him and was happily married when he ‘gave’ his advice. Needless to say I ran a mile and didn’t look back!
We need to exercise wisdom when sharing personal facts and feelings: as Christians we should always be open about our lives with the people we meet, but it is also important to create and enforce righteous and appropriate boundaries too – Jesus did this all the time, and that’s worth paying attention to, very much!
Be wise and righteously cultivate a few friends you feel safe talking to and make yourself accountable to them. Wise counsel doesn’t come cheap, but it’s extremely precious!
And, remember, you never have to surrender personal information that you’re uncomfortable with sharing, especially with strangers and people we don’t yet know well. They might attend a church, or even wear a dog collar, but let’s share our lives appropriately, and carefully: dog collars can be faked, and church is full or broken people just like you and me.
Just a thought...
Andy B
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Transcript
[00:00:00] So another Andy B 2 Minute Video, and I was thinking about the importance of Phoning a Friend. Now that comes from a very well known British TV program, kind of quiz show thing, and Phone a Friend was one of the things that you could do to get help as you were answering the questions that you were asked.
[00:00:24] But yesterday I phoned a friend. I said, can I have a chat with you? He's actually a really good friend of mine from the US, and I just needed to, to bounce some ideas at him. And it's it's really good when we can do that. And I prayed and I thought, Okay, this is the guy I need to speak to. And I was able to share with him something that is quite important and relevant that I don't just wanna talk about to every body.
[00:00:44] So it was really good that I could call him and, and we had a great chat and I was able to share some stuff and it's like, that's what I've specifically been praying for. That wording, that's, that's what I was praying for, which was amazing.
[00:00:55] And then he shared some stuff and I was able to pray for some stuff in his life. And [00:01:00] that whole interaction's encouraged me. It's lifted me. This is a guy I've never met, who lives in America, and we're, you know, I, I count him a really good friend. Because he's a good brother in Christ. He's a man who loves Jesus Christ. And his passion, and his heart, is encouraging others. It's, it's sharing that light of Jesus.
[00:01:19] As I phoned him, as I chatted with him, okay, it was, it was a video call. As we chatted it was really encouraging just to speak to somebody who, who cares about my family as I care about his.
[00:01:30] We all need people that we can talk to, that we can call upon. Maybe you're, you're married and you've got your wife, your, your husband you can talk to.
[00:01:41] Maybe it's one of your children. They've grown up and they, they're someone that you trust.
[00:01:46] Maybe it's the minister of your church. It might be your line manager at work. But we all need people that we can talk to because, as people, we are designed by God to be in community with others. The [00:02:00] religious version of that is, as Christians, we need to have fellowship. Just, literally, time with other believers. That's basically the essence of church, but that fellowship is really important.
[00:02:12] So next time you think I need to talk about some't, phone a friend and get some advice. And it's always encouraging when we can do that, and then we were able to help them as much as they help us. It's a good feeling!
[00:02:29] Just a thought.