11/365 The blessings of spiritual community...

The early years of my faith were a roller coaster - most likely because I was a young teenager. Life was full of emotions, hormones and excitement. Deep friendships were formed, others were severed and some drifted away. 

One of the deepest friendships formed during this time was with M. She and I met when we were in elementary school - pretty much at an earlier church camp. But we didn't move past the acquaintance stage for a while. We did share a salvation experience on that June 26, but even then - we still had separate lives. We attended different schools, had different friends and just didn't seem to line up. We were friendly during church time, but that was pretty much were our relationship stayed. 

That changed for us in the summer of 92. That summer, nearly one year to the date since our shared experience, we connected. We were roommates again at camp and had each come with a friend. But we seemed to spend most of our time talking to each other and one night, we stayed up all night long. We discovered that we had many things in common and had the same approach to life. We were both the oldest child in our families, we had the same issues with friends and boys, and we were at the same place in our spiritual journey. 

This was the most interesting discovery for us - because we came from radically different spiritual backgrounds. She had been in a different religion for nearly 12 years while I had been in Sunday School. She knew very little of the traditional bible stories and I knew the backwards and forwards. But we realized we both felt the same way about God, both had the same outlook on faith and both were living in similar ways. 

That night, a friendship was born. One that was true, deep and lasting. We decided not to let each other drift out of our lives. Much to our parents chagrin, the next few years was filled with hours of phone calls, sleepovers and time together. We held each other accountable, cried with each other, fought with each other (like you wouldn't believe), broke each other's hearts, stood in each other's wedding and loved each other. 

That night a friendship was born that was founded in shared faith and sustained by shared faith. It has carried us through many struggles and battles and even now as we redefine what our faith means to us, it is still there. 

To M. - the sister of my heart for this past 17 years, I love you.