Martin E. Marty asks a poignant question: "What's so special about friendship?" He remarks that we "fall into" love but we don't "fall into" friendship, although we can "fall out of" friendship. 1 We have to work at friendship; friendship has to be cultivated; it has to be a mutual and mature relationship. When we fall into love, we walk on cloud nine, while being friends may often mean walking through dark valleys together. Martin Marty cites Gabriel Marcel who views a friend "as a way of being more than doing," one who is "being at the disposal of someone else." Being a friend means "being available"-a sharing of life, knowledge, and self. Being available "involves an attitude, a posture, a signaling that draws on the deepest elements of the self." Such a person can engage and endure "creative schedule interruptions." A friend is one you can count on. In short, friendship makes demands: be there-- availability in life or death situations, in birth or grave encounters of another kind. A friend is even disposed to lay down his life for other friends. Can we be this kind of friend for others? God is such a friend and so is Jesus who calls us "friends," not servants. Thus, "Friend" can well serve as a root metaphor for "God."
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