Friendship – Jesusluvsall's Blog

It was a blessing to have burgers with my fellow blogger Gary Fultz of garyfultz.com yesterday. Gary lives in that area of the USA that in the winter becomes a frozen tundra. He was on his way to another place in Nebraska for an outdoor adventure with a friend and he stopped by my city to have lunch with me. I waited outside the restaurant for him and when I saw a pick up truck pull in the parking lot, I knew it had to be him.

Our conversation was a mix of getting to know each other, sharing our mutual faith in Jesus, talking about blogging, and some laughter. The blessing of meeting a fellow Christian blogger is that it means meeting a brother for the first time. Gary has some poignant stories from his life that he shared with me, so check out his blogs to read them.

One of those stories involves his daughter and how a medical person and his family came to Gary’s church and ended up becoming Christians. That is a story I will leave for Gary to tell in his blog.

Gary had fun regaling our server with stories about winter and ice fishing in the northern lands of Minnesota. Our server kept coming back to hear more. I may have told him a few jokes. At one point I said, “you must have a grandmother praying for you.” to which he replied in heaven. I told him, “God has a purpose for you.”

Thank you for lunch Gary. It was fun and great to share fellowship with you.

Now that I have a much better car, I might make road trips in the future to visit bloggers.

Thank you for reading. God Bless.

Borscht is a soup that is popular in Ukraine. The first time I ate borscht was during a dinner with my friends at the Ukrainian church many years ago. They were having a special potluck dinner and had invited me to join. Never one to pass up homecooked food, I gladly joined them.

As I was going through the line getting my food, I came to the mashed potatoes. Next to the mashed potatoes was something that looked a bit like salsa to me, bur I did not see anything next to the ‘salsa’ to put it on, Being the creative person that I am at times, I began putting the ‘salsa’ on my mashed potatoes much to the surprise of my Ukrainian friends.

A few of them quickly said, “no teacher that is borscht” while laughing at my blunder. I asked them what borscht is and they told me it is a soup. Not one to waste food, I sat down and ate my food including the mashed potatoes with the borscht on top. It actually tasted good. I told my friends I sat down with that perhaps I should get more. They just smiled and laughed.

Sharing a meal is a great way to get to know people and build friendships. Jesus often shared meals with people in their homes. He would eat in the homes of people who were looked down on by the Pharisees, religious leaders of the day. One time the Pharisees asked Jesus’s disciples why he ate with sinners. Jesus heard it and replied in Matthew 9:12-13:

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The issue is not who we share a meal with or what the meal is. The issue is why we share a meal. Jesus shared meals with people to draw them to himself. Likewise, we can share meals in hopes of Jesus drawing people to himself through our friendships.

By the way, borscht is a delicious soup, but I do not put it on mashed potatoes anymore.

Thank you for reading. God Bless.