Who’s in Your Back Seat?

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a farewell prayer breakfast for a young woman who was leaving for 2 years with the Peace Corps in Africa. She’s the daughter of one of my good friends from college. At the breakfast, I bumped into their pastor, who is also a friend. The pastor was unaware of my college connection and asked how we knew each other. I started to say that the relationship dated back to college days, and then I realized there was a better way to explain: “He was hiding in the back seat of my car when my wife and I drove away from our wedding reception!” It’s a special friendship that goes back many years and is still strong and meaningful. As I reflected later that day, I gave thanks that I have several of those enduring relationships. They are people who have been with me in good and bad times, who know me and care for me regardless of how much or little success that I’ve had. As I was doing the interviews for my book, In Pursuit of Great AND Godly Leadership, a number of leaders talked about deep relationships as being vital to their long-term effectiveness. They described the importance of accountability and the intentionality that is required to sustain these friendships. They recognized the value of being with people who could love them and challenge them, both at the same time. It’s tempting to “wait until things slow down” to get together with that friend, but you’ll quickly find that months or years have passed. This summer, is there a friendship that you need to rekindle? Or that you need to be more intentional to keep it from growing cold? There’s a big difference between someone who snuck into the back seat and someone who’s been left on the side of the road. It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>