Over the years, I’ve met a lot of new friends through the strength training program that I offered at my gym. I also reconnected with old friends and it has always been a joyful journey. As you might expect, people come and go at the gym, for many different reasons, such as work and family responsibilities. I am sad when people can no longer continue — mainly because we grow close as we share about life, family and work — and I won’t get to see them as often or maybe not at all anymore.

I was talking with a friend recently and we were sharing about how friends come and go in our lives, but how we both now see God’s hand in these changes and we have more peace with it.

In the past, I felt guilty about loosing touch with friends, but now I’m realizing, through prayer and reflection, that if we are allowing God to lead our lives, the people we interact with, serve and grow close to in our work, at our parish, in our community, in recreation, and in all of our varied activities of our lives, will change and ebb and flow — and that God’s hand is in this. I now more fully appreciate the beauty and mystery of how God reaches out to us and teaches us through our friends; do we have the eyes to see and ears to hear?

St. Maximillian Kolbe said, “God sends us friends to be our firm support in the whirlpool of struggle. In the company of friends, we will find strength to attain our sublime ideal.”

I trust that God sends us the people we need for the current time we are in, and in continuing to make new friends, re-connecting with old friends, or being conscious of friends who might not be the best influence on us, I’m thankful for God’s grace at work in our friendships.

St. Thomas Acquinas said, “There is nothing on earth, more to be prized than true friendship.”

There will always be those friends who remain steady in our lives. There will be friends that have various roles that may come and go … gym friends, church friends, family friends, work friends, neighbors. I pray to be open and vulnerable to allow new friendships to grow deep, strong and true and to be a good friend to others. I desire to be more gentle with myself when time and distance change friendships. I trust that God knows what is best for me and that he will direct me to the people who can help me become the best version of myself. I am thankful for the gift of friends past, present and future.

From Sirach 6:14-16, “A faithful friend is sturdy shelter; he that has found one has found a treasure. There is nothing so precious as a faithful friend, and no scales can measure his excellence.”