"Could've Gotten Awkward"
EPISODE 211
Enjoy the Journey Together
What are your favorite qualities of your best friend, and how have your friends changed you? As we conclude this season of Bible Geeks, we finish up our Two by Two study with a celebration of God’s gift of friendship. We begin with a moment where Christ looked to a dear one to care for his mother after his death. Then, we go Flyin’ Through the Book of Third John, with its portraits of Gaius, Demetrius, and Diotrephes. Why does John give Christians the moniker “the friends” (3 John 15) and how does his prayer exemplify what we want for each other (3 John 2)? We’ll be gone for a couple months on break, but look forward to returning in August with a new guided study and lots of other good stuff! Until then, we hope you’ll take advantage of the resources at biblegeeks.fm (including the full Two by Two study guide and videos) and keep in touch!
Takeaways
The Big Idea: Some relationships change us in ways we won't even realize until we look back.
This Week's Challenge: Pick up the bill for dinner with a close friend.
Episode Transcription
I just really appreciate that we didn't spend the entire time discussing how much we really like each other. So that's good. Could have gotten awkward there for a little bit. [music] Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Bible Geeks Podcast. This is episode 211. I'm Bryan Schiele. I'm Ryan Joy. And thanks so much everyone for tuning in. We are in session nine of our two by two study. We're wrapping this whole thing up this time on the podcast, talking about lifelong friends. We're just sort of taking a tour at the end of this series, looking at the journey of friendship. And we talked a little bit on the last conversation about how the journey of friendship can sometimes lead us into some challenging conversations and pushing each other to say and hear hard things. And we've really been covering some things that look a little challenging over the last few episodes. So this is kind of a breather, I think, in letting us get a little bit more appreciative of the blessings of friendship. Yeah, it almost reminds me of that what's good study that we were doing where we were just like celebrating good things. And a part of being a good friend and having the blessing of friendship in your life is recognizing it and praising God for it. And honoring the friends and what they give to you as a blessing. It feels appropriate to wrap up a really positive aspect of our own lives, having this conversation to celebrate friendship. And in order to prepare for this whole thing, we have put out a conversation starter. And we're going to get into that one that we called an epic adventure. This is two by two, an epic adventure. Before Bilbo Baggins left the Shire and long before four siblings stepped through a passage in a wardrobe, two friends embarked on an epic adventure of their own. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met at Oxford and became fast friends through their mutual love of fantasy, religion, and writing. They praised each other, pushed each other, and grew in faith and fame together over decades. Hearing news of Lewis's death, Tolkien famously wrote to his daughter, "So far I have felt like an old tree that is losing all its leaves one by one. This feels like an axe blow near the roots." Wow. So here's the big idea. Some relationships change us in ways we won't even realize until we look back. A true friend's love and loyalty last a lifetime, sometimes even blessing you after you die. Like the scene on the cross when Christ asked the disciple whom he loved to care for his mother after he was gone. Quite a responsibility. Yet from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. Praise God for good companions. May we realize the joy they bring and give thanks when we think of them. Remember how Paul gushed over his Philippian friends? "God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus." John captures the sweetness of our bonds, closing his third letter, "Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends each by name." He doesn't call them saints or brothers. He gives the disciples the endearing nickname, "The Friends." So as we conclude our two by two study, let's remember some wisdom from session one. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. So here's the big question. Who are your traveling companions on your journey home? So follow along with this guided study of biblegeeks.fm/twobytwo and may the Lord bless you and keep you to him. Shalom. All right. So the big idea there in that conversation starter was that some relationships change us in ways we don't even realize. Until we look back and you know, we've been talking about all these classic friendships throughout the Bible. Like where would Paul have been without Barnabas? Where would David have been without Jonathan and Naomi without Ruth? These people who were just forever changed by their friendships, by their deep connections with these other people. And these partnerships, I think, help us remember that our own friendships have deep and lasting impacts on us. And I'm hoping that's what we've really done in this series is just celebrate the fact that these friendships, these relationships, they're so impactful on us. And I think way more than just like one time interactions that we'll have with each other. It's more than just the big moments. It's also those little tiny moments that we share with our friends and all the challenges in between. It's the journey of friendship that we're celebrating here. And I think this whole conversation is mostly about celebrating our friends and appreciating them, though maybe it's also a reminder for us just to not take people for granted altogether because that's easy, too. Just to forget that life is a journey and to forget about the blessing that friends really are to us. Yeah, you could do that with any blessing, right? And it is too valuable, too precious. Life itself is too precious to not notice and appreciate and honor the things that are good in this life. There's enough garbage that whenever you get something that is foretaste of the goodness of the life to come, you just want to hold on to it and appreciate it. And you brought up that idea of the journey. And I love this idea. You asked in the question, the big question, who are your traveling companions on your journey home? And I'm such a sucker for that journey metaphor. And you hit all the right notes in that hook about C.S. Lewis and Tolkien and their epic adventure of life as traveling companions. My kids have actually been reading and watching the Narnia Chronicles again this week. OK, and so I watched part of Prince Caspian with them the other day. And I was struck by this idea of Christ, the lion, being with us and yet largely unseen. Lucy has seen Aslan, the lion that's representative in the allegory of Christ. But in the story, most people are trying to figure it out on their own. They're trying to just rely on their strength instead of knowing we're going to have quite a player come in and help us get the victory at the end. And the more they rely on their own strength, the more they distrust each other and they bicker. And they have these companions that are fighting on their side that they can see, unlike Aslan. But Peter's pride and his stubbornness gets him into trouble. And they're all just in conflict until they learn to value each other. Peter starts to see Caspian and the others as partners. He humbles himself. And it's funny how that works, that trusting in Christ doesn't isolate us like, who else do I need? I'm not alone. I have Jesus. That's all I need. And we will get the victory together. No, that's not the way it works. That's not the idea of faith in Christ. It makes us more connected and more thankful to share our journey with those he's given us. That's how his body works is he connects us. He is the vine and we're all these branches that are connected to one another through him. And so the blessing of these relationships are even more whole and functional in Christ. Did anybody forget that you're listening to the Bible Geeks podcast? So I'll just throw that out there. You know, we are absolutely big giant nerds. And I knew as soon as I was putting CS Lewis together with J.R.R. Tolkien in a conversation starter that that would scratch a certain itch for my co-host. So anyway, let's get into our icebreaker question here on this final conversation in our two by two study. And the icebreaker question is this. What's an activity you did with friends when you were younger that you'd cringe to do with them today? Yeah, the first thing I think of is all the punk rock shows we used to go to hitting the mosh pit, which I don't think I'd even have the stamina to do, even if I did want to crowd surfing, which is probably just a miracle. I didn't get dropped on my head on the concrete. It's just generally acting a fool in a less than ideal environment. Something I'm shaking my head. Yeah, I mean, having been to many of those shows with you, I can definitely agree. Another thing that we used to do quite a lot growing up was go to restaurants late at night. And as a group of young people, we would tend to get very loud and boisterous. Not that we were like out of control or anything like that. But, man, I think I'd cringe to go to a restaurant and act that way today. It's the whole thing that happens when you're younger. We're just shouting and yelling and having a good old time. But definitely, I think I would avoid doing that today. Yeah, yeah. All right, so let's move on here and bring Jesus into this conversation even more than we already have. So we're talking about lifelong friends enjoying the journey of friendship together and celebrating these kinds of relationships. There's something that we brought up in that conversation starter, though, that comes from John 19 verses 25 through 27, which we're going to look back on here as we start to think about how Jesus teaches us about this long journey of friendship. Yeah, it's such a poignant moment there as Jesus hangs on the cross and his mother and all these women are standing by him. And Jesus sees his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby and he says to his mother, "Woman, behold your son." Not talking about himself, but evidently talking about the disciple whom he loved. And then he says to the disciple, "Behold your mother." And from that hour, the disciple took her to his home. So that's recorded in John 19, 25 to 27. And what do you take from that, Bryan? So I think over the past few years, I've had a lot of estate planning to think about, things that I've never thought that I'd have to think about. But, you know, a lot of these lawyers that you're talked to when you're planning for a trust or something like that, they have seen almost every scenario under the sun and they encourage people to be very specific and to be very cautious with who they leave their money and their stuff to. And it's always struck me as being very interesting, especially in the church and with family who love and trust each other, that there's such a distrust among the world and among people like lawyers and these estate planners and things, because you never really know what somebody is going to do after you go. We even had this thought ourselves of trying to think about our own estate and what happens when we go. And Sherilyn and I asked each other not too long ago, "How much do we really trust Ashlyn, our daughter?" At the time, she was 11. And it's like, "How much do we trust our 11-year-old daughter?" Well, maybe a little bit right now, but are we going to trust her when she's 15? Are we going to trust her when she's 20? How about when she's 30? Like all these questions that just sort of rack your brain because you're trying to look into the future, but you can't. And the funny thing is here, Jesus knows more about the future than any of us ever will. And I think that's even more powerful, the fact that he trusted John to take care of his mother because he knew what was going to happen after he left this earth. He knew that John was going to be the right person to take care of Mary. And I don't know, I just feel like this is such a... We have to look back on the long history of our relationship with somebody to be able to sort of predict what's going to happen in the future. Jesus didn't have to do that. Although Jesus did leverage that information. Jesus had been walking with John. They did have this relationship, but I mean, all the more reason if he knows what's going to happen in the future, that you have a real solid, warm, fuzzy feeling that John is the right person for this job. And I don't know, it's such a difference, I guess, with the way that Jesus trusts John and the way that we trust our friends. We were only looking backward and sort of guessing what will happen in the future. But wouldn't it be interesting if you could get that sense of you could see into the future and know that your friend was always going to be loyal to you and they were going to take care of your stuff and your people and everyone around you, even after you left this earth. Just such an interesting thought. I don't know. That emphasis on trust, that's really good because think about like, what are you going to entrust to your friend that's more precious? Like, here's my baby, my favorite car, the sports car that I rub with a cloth diaper and I take care of. I'm giving you the keys to this for the month. Like, okay, yeah, sure, I trust you a lot. But this is his mom and he says, take care of her. You are her son. That's such an act of trust. And it's such a human way for Jesus to have dealt with this. I mean, you think of providentially, he can make sure that she's taken care of beyond his life on earth. But he deals with this in such a personal way because he's not going to be physically there to provide for her and protect her. And so while he's carrying out the most important mission in history, he pauses to be a human son. And there's just so much happening here. When I lived in Hawaii, I had a friend who had always called me the Ichiban son, like the number one son, the oldest son. And when you're the oldest son, then there's certain responsibilities that you just think of, especially in their culture, right? In that society, here is an eldest son who, rather than calling on his younger brothers to look after their mom, turns to one dear friend and follower that he knows he can trust, like you said. And that's just so interesting that that's where he turned, is the disciple he loved. You think of all the other things going on. Here's a mother who's watching her son suffer, helpless to stop his death, and a savior, like I said, just carrying the eternal needs of the whole world on his shoulders, but his mind is still on the needs of his mom. And then you think about this disciple who, just as helpless, is watching the unthinkable happen. And he gets a chance to be the friend to the one he loves in this special way. And that's a special honor. You're going to do that with such devotion, such care, like Mary was never taken care of so well, right? I mean, it's just such a special act of love. I'm sure he cared for Mary, but this is Jesus you're doing this for. And it takes your breath away to consider all of the implications and all the meaning in this act. And just pray that we would all learn to be sons like Jesus, to maybe learn to ask friends for help. Like if Jesus asked for help from a friend, like shouldn't we? We've talked about that issue several times. And then just this loyalty. I want to be loyal to our Lord like John. I want to be, as we sing sometimes, I'll be a friend to Jesus. And it's such a unique, interesting story, right? Yeah, it just if Jesus stopped to take a moment to connect with his friend and, oh, by the way, his mother as well, then in that moment, that's showing us that this is important. These relationships are worth investing time and energy into. And I think that helps us so much. And especially as we move into our last segment here, which is flying through the book. I feel the need. The need for speed. So we're going to totally cheat here and we are going to go through one of the shortest books in the New Testament. And that is the book of Third John. And continuing to talk about John, we're going to get into this story about John's connection and relationship with his friend Gaius, how he's writing this personal letter to him. This book is really obviously it's very short, but it's very targeted in the way that John is commending this man for his hospitality. And obviously this letter is probably written very late in the life of John and very late after all of the other gospels and all the other epistles are all written. But I think here in this short little letter, we see this comparison and contrast between what it means to support the Lord's work and how others have decided to reject that work. John is making personal connections with people who are doing good things. And he's calling them just some of the most endearing terms you can think of here because this whole letter is dripping with love. This is John. John is the guy who is just gushy about how much he loves people. You know, he just he calls everybody beloved. And he like, you know, this is the guy who, by the way, wanted to bring lightning down and he's the son of thunder along with his brother. But man, I mean, you think about John and you see the love that he has here in letters like this. And it reminds you how important it is to connect with people and to have these close bonds and to carry these kinds of relationships with you all the way to the end. And that's really why we're going to look at third John here, because he does such a great job at showing us what it's like to be a real friend. I love that he's dripping with love. You know, the the end is so genuine, like it's not false at all. And he's an older man. He calls himself the elder here. But this is probably pretty late, like you said. And I think that as you get to know older saints, people who've been walking with the Lord for a long time, you just see like they've gotten better with time. You know, they've aged well into their maturity as the body falls apart, the spirit becomes more and more complete in Christ. And there's this strength that is not compromising in any way. And yet it is met with this gentleness and this love and affection for people like here. He has this joy over Gaius's faithfulness in these first four verses of the opening greeting. He says, Dear Gaius, basically in verse one. And then he gives a prayer in verse two. And then he talks about his joy in verses three and four. And I think the key verse here in this first section is verse two. I love this prayer that he offers. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul. And so you just see this sense that when we love others, we want every part of their life to be blessed. But he also wants health and prosperity and the spiritual wellness becomes kind of this core part of their well-being that brings incredible joy as you see them walking in the truth. As he says here, their faithfulness and closeness to Christ brings this joy because you get to share that with them. You get to see confidently that they are standing in something that is going to enrich them and rich others and that you can share with them. Yeah, I mean, I think that really highlights a lot of the stuff that we've been talking about in this series, right? There's so much depth to friendship and there are many levels to it, right? It's like sometimes there are surface level things where it's just like, hey, can I pick you up from the airport? And then sometimes it's getting into the deeper and more spiritually significant things, these tough, challenging conversations, the encouraging each other and pushing each other to better spiritual devotion and just the celebration that we can have with each other in our faith together. And you just see this playing out in John's relationship with Gaius here. He cares. He cares about every aspect of him, like holistically. It's not just about little pieces of Gaius's life that he's that he's interested in. So I think that plays out here in the next few verses in verses five through eight, where really the point of this section is how Gaius is a true friend and he is receiving encouragement from John to keep on being hospitable. It says here in verse five, beloved is a faithful thing that you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are who testified to your love before the church. It's like John, he's there seeing Gaius's hospitality for these like itinerant preachers who I guess are going around and Gaius is taking care of them. And John is just like, again, he's gushing over how much he loves that Gaius is taking part of this and then he encourages him. Just keep doing it. Keep being a friend to even some of these strangers who come in and you're supporting and helping. So this is a short section here, but it starts out where he commends Gaius's actions. And then he moves on to talk about how he wants Gaius to continue being supportive of these people in the future. I'm seeing in this section these words like strangers and quote unquote people like these. And I think that's what's so special about Gaius in this story. He's like a friend to everybody he meets. He comes across somebody. He has no idea who they are, but he's a friend to them. And this is such a helpful reminder for me because I think throughout this series, we've been talking about our friends and developing a close circle of friendship. But there are going to be people who we run across who we don't really know them that well and we don't really have that many connections with them. But can we like Gaius be a fast friend to them? Just really let this ramp up quickly and support people in really powerful ways. So I don't know, Gaius may not have been the guy going around doing all of these epic missionary journeys. But he was a fellow worker. And I think that's the takeaway that I get from this section is that John is commending him for being a part of the work. Every time he shows love to somebody, every time he is supporting and helping and being hospitable to somebody, he's not a stumbling block for them. He's not a Debbie Downer for them. He's like he's shaking his pom poms in really powerful spiritual ways. Spiritual pom poms here this. But, you know, he really is supporting these people. And John is actively commending him for that. Yeah, I'm leading a study right now of hospitality. And so I like what you're saying there about taking these strangers who are also brothers in the Lord, but they're coming from some place you don't know and that you've never met them. You don't know much about them, but you're receiving them and treating them like friends, which is the essence of that's what hospitality means, right? Love of strangers. And so this contrasts with what we see in verses nine to ten, which is a guy that has no sense of hospitality or love. This warning about Diatrophies, Diatrophies is the worst. That's the main point here. Diatrophies won't acknowledge John's authority in verse nine. He's planning to address this when he comes. John is in the beginning of verse ten and then the end of verse ten, he says Diatrophies kicks traveling brothers out of the church. So, again, the opposite of what Gaius is doing. And the key verse here, verse nine says, I have written something to the church, but Diatrophies who likes to put himself first does not acknowledge our authority. And what a summary of like who you are that you don't want attached to yourself if you're trying to be a follower of Jesus. This is the exact antithesis of what Christ did, right? Dying for us. And so I think that's the main insight here in context of our guided study. Diatrophies shows all the traits you don't want in a friend or a brother. He likes to put himself first. He refuses to show hospitality to the people who need a place to stay. And instead, he's kind of like elected himself as president of the church and the chief decider of who to welcome. Who is, you know, I am the judge of all things good and all people who will be taken in by anyone amongst us. And so like, yeah, you're out of the church. It's like off with his head. It's kind of this this power trip. And he's not recognizing apostolic authority. He's taken his authority so far. And so the insight is to, of course, flip all of that, to prioritize others needs and to view yourself and your opinions with some humility and yield to the authority of certainly of the elders. But here this is John the apostle. So just step back and humility is the word of the day here for Diatrophies. It sure is. It's funny, too, because on a couple of episodes ago, we talked about the appreciation burrito and just the like compliment sandwich and stuff. So this is kind of connected with that in some ways. You know, he's got this good thing to talk about with guy is here and then he's got the like the meaty kind of just not good thing in the middle, like a thorn between two roses. That's a good way to put it for sure. And now he gets to Demetrius here in verses 11 and 12 when he's really encouraging them not to imitate evil, but imitate good. And so just to kind of as like a palate cleanser, get this bad taste of Diatrophies out of your mouth. Let's talk about Demetrius, who, by the way, is awesome. If Diatrophies is the worst, who are we going to imitate? Is it going to be guy is or Diatrophies? Oh, and yeah, of course, Demetrius here has a good report from the brothers. And do you notice here in this little section how many witnesses are adding credibility to Demetrius is character like everyone, right? He says everyone has given him a good testimony. And then it says and from truth itself. So apparently the truth is giving him a good witness. And then it says, and we also add our testimony and you know that our testimony is true. It's like, duh, everybody knows that Demetrius is doing awesome and closed. You should be like him case closed. Exactly. So I feel like here credibility matters. And you talked about how guy is was authentic and how John was authentic. You know, and he calls people beloved. He's not like putting on a show or anything like that. I think Demetrius is authentic as well because everybody knows it. You would imagine that if he was a bad guy, like an evil tree, you would know him by his fruits. And I think here John is basically just throwing everybody a bone and saying, yeah, we don't even need to say much more, but you know how cool Demetrius is. So he like him. Yeah, it is interesting how this the whole thing is a discussion of three people, even though he's talking to guy as himself. It's like, here are three people. Which ones do you want to be? And there's such a clear picture of the character of each. And then he closes the thing out in verses 13 to 15 is kind of a can't wait to see you soon kind of a very personal message, right? Like I want to see you face to face and verse 14. I have too much to say in a letter. Tell everybody hello. And the key verse here, I think, is the last one. It says peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends each by name. We talked about this in the conversation. The friends. The friends. So he closes as I do on this podcast, he closes with the blessing of Shalom or in Greek, Irenae. But then he gives a new title for believers. I love this. It's just so unique. He calls the disciples in his local community in the local church there. The friends, not my friends or all your friends here. All the good people over this way, all the beloved, but the friends like like elsewhere. We read of the way or the brothers or the church. This is the friends. And then he doubles down on it and he calls all the believers in Gaius's local church, the friends there. And he's asked that each friend be warmly greeted by name on John's behalf. So it's it's not just a title. There is he's treating each person as a friend. This isn't like an impersonal collection of worldwide Christians. There are groups of friends right all over the place. You know, we talk about it as a family sometimes, which is a wonderful metaphor or as a body. And all of these, maybe you could say are more than metaphors. I mean, they're they're getting to a deep rooted truth. And so is this use of this Holy Spirit endorsed prophetic word calling all of the brothers and sisters in Christ the friends. I just think that's so great. There are groups of friends here who love the friends there. And it could also be that John is drawing from Jesus words that we discussed way back earlier in this study when he called his disciples friends. You are my friends. You're not just my servants. You're my friends. You do what I tell you. And greater love has nobody than this to lay down his life for his friends. I have chosen you as my friends. These are not just my friends. These are the friends of Jesus, if that's the sense that he's pulling out here. If he's thinking back to John 13 and 14, the friends of Jesus there and the friends of Jesus at Monte Vista, the friends of Jesus here up in Fort Wade. Just a neat way to close the book as we start to close out this study of friendship to know you got friends all over the place. Oh, man, it's so good. You couldn't have chosen really a better book to talk about when celebrating friendship. And just like we said, John is he is very emotive about his love and his affection for people. And I think you hit the nail right on the head when you talked about the friends there. So let's get into our next segment here on the episode. And that is our reach out question. OK, here's the question, Bryan, what are your favorite qualities of your best friend? I'm ready for you to just talk about me for a minute. No, I'm joking. Well, yeah, I mean, obviously, I think I could describe my favorite qualities about you here. I could also just kind of punt and pick an obvious one, like picking all the favorite qualities of my wife, Sharilyn. But I'm going to be a little more generic because all of my friends have a common theme that I find some real favorite qualities in. And I think my favorite thing about people who I'm closest to is just like you just talked about that family feeling. But the friends kind of idea even adds more weight to it. Just being comfortable. That's really it. Like, just the comfort level that I have with my friends is, you know, in spite of all of our quirks, in spite of all of our oddities or hang ups, you can just settle in so quickly and not have to worry about things feeling weird. You could sit on a long car ride with somebody and just be quiet, or you could sit on a long car ride with somebody and talk the entire time. And either way, it's going to be fine. There's no feelings like you've got to perform for somebody or you have to be on your game for somebody. It's just comfortable. Right. And yeah, there are times where things get difficult. Like we've talked about in this series where you have some difficult conversations or some personality issues or whatever come into play or you get hangry. Right. And you're like, OK, I'm going to need a minute. Otherwise, things are going to get bad. But like so often there's just an ease and a lightness with my friends that I appreciate. And that that has to be one of my favorite qualities of all the people who I'm the closest to. It's almost like a warm blanket. That's a weird way to talk about it. I guess like friends are like a warm blanket where it's just you can settle in and it just doesn't take much effort. I don't have to worry about saying anything wrong because I say lots of things wrong and my friends understand and are willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. And as I think about just the comfort level that I have with people, it's a real challenge for me then to turn around and look in the mirror and ask myself that question. Like, am I a comfortable person to be around? And there are times and I'm sure of it. There are times where I'm not the most comfortable person to be around. And if I value that so much and other people, if I value just that ease and the lightness that I have with people, and maybe the thing I need to focus on is just being a more comfortable person to be around. Because if I value that so much and other people, am I willing to extend that to my friends as well? And so it's just easy. I don't know. What do you think about that? I think you nailed it. That was really good. The ease of not being on is something we've talked about, not having to be something, not like you feel like you need to be false. But with other people, most people, honestly, even ones that are dear to me, I just I want to be of service. I mean, I've worked on trying to settle in more, still have intentionality, but to settle in and not switch on. Like my mind is working so hard. And I think the inquiry that you were starting to explore of what does it look like for me to be a comfortable person to be around? Or like it's easier to name it the other way. Like how am I making other people uncomfortable whenever I'm not settled in or I'm trying to juggle too many things and get things done while they're trying to connect with me or whatever's going on? I think that's a helpful exercise to think about. I mean, I did think of Adrian, who is my best friend, has been weirdly since like the day we met, we just like clicked. And then very quickly it was like, OK, this is a friend for life, whatever else happens. And two qualities that she exemplifies that just come right to mind are that sense of ease and fun, you know, that goes with the ease. Like it's easy, but it's not like you're just two lumps on a log. It's like you're laughing together and you're there's like she's interesting and she's engaging, but she's also easy. And like we talk about being alone together is a really nice thing to be able to be. But it's better than being alone because you have somebody to share these things with that you really like and really enjoy being together in that time. And then just somebody who's ready to show up when I need her. She's just that classic supportive listener and counselor ready to act to help carry the load, whatever's going on. You know, OK, let's think through this. How are we going to you know, there's those crisis moments. She's the one that I go to, you know, whenever I'm like, OK, I don't want other people to know that I'm freaking out, but I am freaking out. And I got to talk to somebody about this. I have too much on my plate or this went really badly and I'm worried about this person or whatever's going on. And I can work through it with her and we can pray together and we can think through and she kind of tries to read within or ask me, hey, do you want to just talk it out or you want me to give you my thoughts? And I value both. And so I don't know which one of us is cheating more like me going with the wife or you going generic. But it's funny that we kind of ended up in a similar place. I just really appreciate that we didn't spend the entire time discussing how much we really like each other. So that's good. Good. I got an awkward there for a little bit. So let's move into our final segment for the week. And that is our challenge. I am ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me. OK, so this one isn't that hard, but you know, you're going to have to pull out your wallet and pick up the bill for dinner with a close friend. So just show it somebody that you appreciate them by saying, hey, let's go grab a bite. It's on me and it's on me because I just appreciate you. I yes, I think it's this is probably one of the most practical and like super softball challenges to do. But you know, it's really funny is as easy as we are with people and as comfortable as we can be. Isn't it just ridiculously hard for somebody to actually agree to let you buy them food? Like there will be like an arm wrestling match. There will be like a real battle to the end, like to try to figure out who's actually going to grab that bill at dinner. And sometimes if your friend comes up to you and says, hey, I really want to buy you dinner to show my appreciation. The nice thing to do is just to let them do that. That's also, you know, it takes the giving and the receiving rate that we talked about in the last episode. So, yeah, I really do think this is a great opportunity for us just to express our appreciation. Yes, we say to somebody, thank you for being a friend like we did a couple of weeks ago. But then we also show it in these little tiny moments where we just get together and have a good time and take care of the people who have really taken care of us. And I think we've seen that in this whole guided study for sure. Yeah, you sound like to go back to my family dynamic, like you've had dinner with my family where there's like a whole gamesmanship on both sides of me and Adrian's family to taking the taking the bill and figuring out who's going to pay. But it's interesting what you say there, because I think that this does have the strange kind of subtle power to shift and deepen a friendship dynamic. Just let someone take care of it. And then you get to say, hey, I really appreciate that. I got the next one. And then the next time you got it and you get to serve and the other person gets to say, hey, thank you. It just subtly. It's not a big deal. I get it. But it's saying it's OK in this relationship for us to take care of each other, you know, us to look out for each other and do small favors. That's the kind of relationship we have. We're not like fierce individualists to say, no, I pull my own weight. You go over there. And I like what you said there. Kind of deep into this challenge a little bit for me. Just a small kindly deed that may cheer another is the work thou has planned for you. I love it. Well, with that, let's close out this study with a prayer. Our prayer we suggest in the study guide is we joyfully praise you for friends. May we never take them for granted. Coming from Paul's words to the Philippians and Philippians one, three through five. So let's go to God in prayer. Father, you are the fountain of blessings and our cup runs over with the gifts that you pour out to us every day. Thank you, Father, for the people that you've brought into our lives. Thank you for the rich gift of fellowship and love that we share. Thank you for the work you continue to do in our brothers and sisters so that we get to enjoy the best people in the world. These people that you fill your church with, people as Hebrews says, of whom the world is not worthy. May we all persist in our faithfulness. May we follow you whatever comes. May we hold on to you through dark days and keep growing towards the fullness of Christ. We pray that you would give us courage and faith and the awareness that we have each other. That there are others who love you like we do. Others who are facing the same trials we do. Lord, let us forge bonds through the fire that we go through. Let us stand with each other in faith and patience and honesty. But we also ask you for the sweeter, easier gifts like love, like laughter, like happy times together. We know that these good things are four tastes of our eternal life in the age to come. We pray that you would be glorified in our friendships. And we pray that we would be always true to our master. That you would strengthen us. That you would fortify our resolve as we treasure the friendship of Jesus and as we strive every day to be a friend to him. We pray all of this through his intercession and in his name. Amen. Amen. All right. So that wraps up our two by two guided study. And we did it. We did it. It's done. So nine sessions here in this guided study. This was a fun one. You can find all these conversations on our website there at biblegeeks.fm/twobytwo. And those will be available for you if you want to have these conversations with a friend or with a small group at church. We'd love it if you'd use these things. Have these conversations deepen in your friendship with those who you're close to or those who you're trying to be closer to. So coming up, we're going to take, as we've talked about how we're going to start up a new schedule this year. And we've done a little quarter long session here of stuff in the spring. And so during the summer in June and July, we're going to take some time off and we will be back, Lord willing, August 1st with another episode coming up. Brand new, fun and exciting run of episodes. We're going to do some guided studies. We're going to do some book clubs. We're going to do back to the chosen AV club stuff. We're going to do all kinds of things in the upcoming drop. But we are going to take a little bit of a break over the summer just to kind of recharge and get ready. And one of the things we're getting ready for is this new guided study that we are really excited about. And we're calling it Square One, an evangelism study focused all about bringing somebody from the beginnings of their faith into this real full understanding of who Jesus is. Yeah, yeah, this is going to be fun to get into. And I hope that it is helpful to others. I hope that in addition to you and me building something that we want to use in our work, that this is something that serves others. So, you know, we both have used a lot of different evangelism approaches. A lot of them are really well put together and helpful. But we've been wanting to build something that fits our styles and the kinds of conversational studies that, as we've talked about, we end up doing with a lot of people. And so our next guided study will be meant to start at the beginning, at Square One, with someone in a series of conversations leading to conversion or at least to a choice about conversion and faithfulness to Christ and helping them to answer questions and think through what their life is outside of Christ and what Christ wants for them. That's coming this fall. Can't wait to get into it. If anybody has any thoughts or suggestions about what has helped you in your work speaking to others the gospel and trying to bring the Lord's salvation to others, we're really trying to research and learn and think through all the different things that work and trying to find the right fit for what we're trying to do here. So welcome any comments on that. Absolutely. Yeah. Reach out on our website at biblegeeks.fm/contact or you can find us on social media or you can talk to us in person. I mean, that always works, too. So get in touch with us. Let us know. How is it that you found success in your evangelism? And maybe we can talk about some of those things, folding those into our series, Square One, beginning in the fall. So we're really excited for the break. We hope everyone has a blessed time with their families over the summer break or whatever you're doing. If you're stuck at work, I'm really sorry, but we'll be back August 1st, Lord willing. So until then, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom. See you soon!