The Curse of Being a #FriendToAll (like we imply Jesus is) @prayerDotOrg @MassMissChoir #Friend #Friendship #Friendly #Friends #Friendlier #Friendships #WhatAFriendWeHaveInJesus #AFriendInNeedIsAFriendIndeed #CircleOfFriends

Trying to explain 'what I'm doing here,' I thought maybe I'm "trying to be a friend-to-all." I immediately thought of Lord Jesus Christ—who said 'the purest love is when one would "die" (well, "lay down one's life") for one's friends' (John 15:13).

I obviously don't want to die as a sacrifice for all (or–you know–'die so that you all may live,' like they say Jesus did), but I want all of you to ... whoa; that sounded like I want you all to "worship Jay," but–while it's tempting, and while I'm certainly not going to forbid you from worshiping me (like I'm sure you worship Stephani "Lady Gaga" Germanotta or Bruno Mars)–I ... I don't know ...

... I guess that's why Aristotle said

We are all 'friends to our favorite celebrities' (not 'friends who would die for them,' but more like 'friends who would do inconvenient favors for them' or 'friends who would give them money (much the way we do when we buy the music they perform or the movies they star-in)), but it would probably be wayyy too-stressful for any of them to be 'friends to all their fans.'

Oh, celebrities are 'friends to all their fans' ... as long
as the only favor you ask of them is "to perform more!"
 (Really, lots of celebrities would probably be sub-standard
 friends to you (unless you're their 'paycheck' (producer,
 agent, director, song-writer, doctor, nurse, publicist, etc.)))

'That word' (below-hyperlinked to a MyLot-discussion about 'the "difference" between fans & friends') is built on ancient words that serve as the foundation of our lexicon today ...

The word “Friend” is built on ancient words that mean “to Love” (one person Attached to another by Feelings of Personal Regard & -Preference).

So what people mean by "Friend" (especially with the social-networks' usage of the term to mean something more-like 'Fellow Member on your Friends-List') is "a spectrum of caring-about"—ranging from 'I don't even know them, but I probably don't hate them,' to 'I would die for them, even if "my sacrifice" were meaningless and had absolutely no actual effect on their safety nor comfort!'

(Of-course there I'm thinking of "Jesus's sacrifice for us ... I mean; What kind of effect does 'a convicted rabble-rouser's botched execution' have on us-innocents' post-mortem destiny? How does 'believing that we've got a-friend-in-Jesus' earn us 'a mansion in His/Our Father's House'?

(I'll think about all that a little-later, but for now ...
 That shows us 'how Faith works'—not 'knowing
 how to do something,' but 'persisting, and thus
 seeming to "make happen" what was "going to
 happen anyway.")

But the 'friend-to-all is friend-to-none'-quote reminds me of something else that Jesus said: "You cannot serve two masters—loving one, you must hate the other; paying devotion to one, you despise the other" (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13). 

Jesus is referring to 'God and money,' but you can see how it applies to "friends"—I've got plenty of 'friends,' but almost none of them will contact me unless I contact them first (maybe that truth is the reason-why 'Reply' is made especially convenient ... designed by a friend-like-me).

The reason why these "friends" aren't 'friendly' until I'm 'aggressively friendly'? Because they have "better" friends (and "best friends"-etc.) ... or—maybe a better way to put it would be "prior" friends; not only because they were their friends before they were my friends, but also because those friends are given "priority."

And our minds can only handle so-many 'Priority Friends.' I mean; If I had more than 5-or-10 people in my 'Priority Friends'-list, I would probably 'despise' all my other "friends."

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