By: Andy Baker, Coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Palm Beach
One of my all-time favorite Christmas traditions is the timeless Charles M. Schultz cartoon classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Like many of you, Charlie Brown and the gang instantly transport me back to my childhood. For at least half an hour, I forget the hustle and bustle of today and relive a simpler time, listening once again with childlike ears, to the true meaning of Christmas. For me, the annual showing of this cinematic masterpiece paused our mandatory bedtimes and called together all of my neighborhood friends around a shared television and a multitude of Christmas treats. Yet, as I watched this year and reflected on the past, I was drawn deeper and deeper into a reflection on the need for trusted relationships and true friendships, and just how important those in our friend circle are to the development of our individual relationship with Jesus Christ.
Reflecting, I couldn’t help but be moved by Charlie Brown’s sense of being lost, his desperate search for truth, and at times lashing out in frustration at his friends who eventually turn away and leave him. It reminded me so much of youth ministry today because our young people are a lot like Charlie Brown. They also desperately seek the Truth (Jesus Christ) and, because they can’t see Him for all the chaos, they reject and walk away from Him, looking for solace in the dangerous lies of the world. As I pondered further this idea of trusted relationships, I recognized that none of this is reserved just for our youth, but for all of us; young and old, engaged or disengaged, we all desperately need a trusted friendship circle to get us in front of and keep us close to Jesus Christ. We absolutely need a Linus van Pelt to remind us of the Truth and to mobilize our friend circle when we need them the most. The Gospel of Luke gives us a great example of a friendship circle:
One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set [him] in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. When he saw their faith, he said, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.” (Luke 5:17-20 NABRE)
The paralyzed man had the ultimate friend circle… follow my thought for a moment, these companions carried their friend on a stretcher across villages and through crowds, never giving up on their goal of getting their friend in front of Jesus. Having met the ultimate roadblock in an impenetrable crowd, they climbed up on the roof, ripped it open, and lowered their friend down. But here is the best part, Jesus heals the man not because the man asked to be healed, but because of the faith of his friends. The man was healed because of the faith of his friend circle! He had the ultimate friend circle, and I am almost positive he had a Linus van Pelt.
Wrapping up this Christmas reflection on relationships, we come to the season of resolutions. Charlie Brown and Linus van Pelt have made me think deeply about my own friend circle. I realize I need more true friends than familiar acquaintances in my circle. I need more friends willing to rip off the roof for me and fewer giving me a thumbs up or heart emoji. Humans are driven by relationships, it’s in our DNA and the purpose of our creation. In His image we were created to be in relationship with Him and together with the help of each other, to reflect Him to everyone else on this earth. This New Year, I invite you to join me in making a firm resolution to check and update your friend circle, to find your Linus, and, most of all, to be a Linus to someone else.
Here’s what the Scriptures have to say:
Genesis 1:26-27 – Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth. God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
John 15:5 –I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.
John 15:13-15 – No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.