R A Y A H

A while ago I recieved a letter. It made my day/week/month/year. In essence it was the first written communication that I've had with this friend. You see we used to be adversaries, both holding worldviews that would be fairly far apart no matter which spectrum one might use. When I saw him the first thing that would pop into my head was, "Man, we're so different and as much as I might respect him, I don't really like being around him... and I think I might be a little better than him. I mean after all I do much better than him in school!". Now, please understand that although I have summed it up fairly bluntly here, I would never be that much of a pompous prick even in my head all at once. But I'm not making excuses, that was the gist of it. Carrying on... Some time during the course of my Grade 12 year, (I'm very confident of this fact now) the Holy Spirit changed me... What I really mean is, He showed me the power of love. You see after that point I came at this guy from a new perspective: I loved him. Genuinely and honestly. He was a child of God as was I. I loved him like a brother, with the Greek Phileos and with the Hebrew Rayah: the love of a friend. He noticed this. I was amazed at his response because one whom I had treated so poorly in my head and apparently with my body language (although generally I try to hide any ill feeling, which is not good), he loved me back. It was forgiveness and it was powerful and it brought us together with the power of love. He is my friend and he sent me a letter that made my year. If you're reading this pal, I love ya like a brother. For anyone others reading this I sincerely hope you can learn from my mistake. Peace.