A Friendship As Good As Mac & Cheese

Sage Parker
Aug 26, 2017 · 2 min read

It is my worst hidden secret — I’ve been having a hard time as of late. Part of it has been disappointment how hard is has been to turn to God to soothe the frostbite from this emotional winter I’ve faced. This season, however, is also why I’m particularly grateful for the wisdom I’ve been exposed to over the past six years.

Thus, while I haven’t acknowledged God’s presence on my own, I recognize how he facilitated a best friend who flew back home from New York to provide a few hours together that will now ignite change.

“There are only two directions in life. You either fight to live or learn to die.” — Manuel Dejesus

His words now resound — an anthem of rejuvenation for the time I have left here in this town I so look forward to leaving behind. Instead of harboring on the handicaps I’ve dealt with for the past 18 years, he provided perspective.

When you are handicapped, and surrounded by strangers, friends, and family who are fully involved in (mostly) healthy and freedom-filled lifestyles, it becomes frustrating when yours are the only hands bound. I know this sounds so cryptic, but the words shared with me tonight apply to life as a whole.

I’ve spent the past two months resenting present circumstance, when the present is all that will ever exist. The past is a figment and the future is never promised.

The truth is that I tried moving out on my own, to a new state, at the beginning of the year. Things didn’t go according to plan, and I found myself in my mom’s apartment five months after my move. It was a necessary move, the best move for me to make, and an opportunity that I should be grateful for. However, no matter how others could say I “should” feel a particular way, I’ve only felt failure.

Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.” — Thomas Edison

I want to say that it’s incredible that God’s overflow in my friend has melted my winter. I’m not quite sure of that “Ah-hah!” conclusion, if I’m to be honest. What I am sure about, however, is that something valuable occurred in which my perspective has changed.

I’m no longer going to fight against my reality. It’s a tough one, but I realize that the sooner that I’m able to accept my facts of life, then it becomes easier for me to see God’s work reflected therein.

These past couple of days were important, and I’m very thankful for the love I can say I hadn’t always felt or had.

)