Hallway Friends

The Man in the Mirror | Chapter 7 | Broken Relationships | “By having the same attitude as Jesus Christ, we can break with the self-interested, secular view of the world.  Our score in relationships will improve so much we might even make the dean’s list!” – Patrick M. Morley

scrip·ture |

Hebrews 10:24-25 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Matthew 7:7-8 ⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

de·vo·tion | When I worked in Minneapolis, I would have meetings at multiple buildings disparately located throughout downtown. As I walked from building to building, there were those people that I would recognize only in passing and would give a quick nod or a “how’s it going?” They would do the polite Midwest thing and give a nod in return, say “good, and you?” I called these people my hallway friends. They seemed like nice people, but I never thought of taking any real time to get and know these people. I didn’t even know their names. I was content with them being my hallway friend as long as I didn’t have to take the time to invest in a personal relationship. I was comfortable with knowing I didn’t need to take the time to personally know them.

At times I would find myself in a meeting where one of my hallway friends would be present. Like our hallway passing, we would have our surface level pleasantries. Sometimes I found myself taking the next step and asking a hallway friend to coffee. Slowly, as I invested time and effort into these hallway friends, I would learn more and more about them. I wouldn’t just learn their name, I would find out what they liked to do. I would find out their career aspirations. I would hear praises and complaints about their job. In some cases, I would invest more with these hallway friends. The more I invested the less were a hallway friend, they became a personal friend. They became a friend where we would share not just work stuff, but life stuff with each other. We felt comfortable sharing our personal joys, frustrations, and private opportunities. They went from being a surface level hallway friend to a personal life partner that could hold me accountable and help me grow.

In our Christian life, we can find ourselves wandering the church or our men’s groups only satisfied with making hallway friends. We rarely put the time into creating relationships that allow us to grow in wisdom and companionship with our fellow brothers. We stagnate our personal spiritual growth by keeping our brothers far enough away, where we only see them as a person we politely nod to and say “how’s it going?” Even worse, we wander our Christian life only satisfied with God being one of those hallway friends. We become content just knowing His name and not investing more into knowing Him personally.

A.W. Tozer writes, “Everything is made to center upon the initial act of “accepting” Christ [hallway friend] … and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him we need no more seek Him.” We miss out on building a personal relationship with our LORD, where we are content with just accepting God.  We become lazy in our journey to continuously ask, seek, and knock. We need to not be content with keeping God as a hallway friend.  We must seek Him out on a daily basis and pray with Him, read with Him, cry with Him, and experience joy with Him. Let us drop our complacency and seek a relationship built on a desire to know Him, and let that trickle into our relationships in our work, community, and church. Let us not be content in being hallway Christians.

Prayer | LORD, praise and worship to You, my personal God. Praise and worship to You for sending us Your son Jesus the Christ, a deliberate act on Your part to move beyond being a hallway friend to your people, but advocating a personal relationship with us.  Forgive me LORD for my comfortableness, my laziness, and my complacency in not asking, seeking, or knocking on a daily basis.  I commit myself to treating you more than just a hallway friend.  I also pray that you continue to put those people in my life that I can grow with spiritually and personally.  Lend me Your Spirit that I may break down my walls of being a comfortable Christian and I can find in my everyday wonderings a brother that can share in my worship and praise.  Amen

Daily Alone Time with God |

Chapter of the Week | Proverbs 3

Mon·day | Proverbs 13:20 ²⁰ Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm

Tues·day | Proverbs 17:17 ¹⁷ A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Wednes·day | Ephesians 4:2-3 ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ eager to maintain the unity of the Spirt in the bond of peace.

Thurs·day | Isaiah 40:31 ³¹ But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on the wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Fri·day | 2 Peter 1:5-7 ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.