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We can enjoy varied images of the Divine to enrich Prayer. One image, rarely employed in public liturgy, is Jesus as Friend. However, anyone who has enjoyed the beauty and richness of deep friendship can see the wisdom in the language of friendship with Christ.
Joseph Scriven left Dublin, Ireland, for Canada at age twenty-five, apparently due to his religious convictions estranging him from his parents and the accidental drowning of his fiancée on the eve of their planned wedding. Scriven took the Sermon on the Mount literally and sought to live it out in service to the poor. Scriven is known to have shared any of his possessions with the poor, even giving away his clothes he wore to those who needed clothing.
Scriven, far from his mother in Ireland, seeking to console and encourage her during a severe illness, wrote the words of the hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" and sent it, along with a letter, to her. He did not intend the poem for publication. Later, when he became ill, a friend found the poem written on scratch paper and near his bed. The friend asked Scriven had he written it: Scriven, with his typical modesty, replied, "The Lord and I did it between us."
Possibly, Scriven's considered-by-many eccentricity, due to radical adoption of spiritual poverty, brought him closer than many persons to the experience of friendship with Jesus. Eccentric or not, the words of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" are testimony to a deep love for Christ and, likewise, the love of a son estranged from his mother due to his convictions regarding his best Friend: a Friend he decided had to be followed, even at the cost of the strong disapproval of family and other relations:
What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged-
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness-
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge-
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He'll take and shield thee-
Thou wilt find a solace there.
Large crowds were walking along with Jesus, when he turned and said: You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come with me unless you love me more than you love your own life. You cannot be my disciple unless you carry your own cross and come with me (St. Luke 14.25-27, CEV).
What sacrifices have you made that have led you to a more intimate relationship with Christ Jesus? Do you ever speak to Jesus as your best Friend?
*OneLife writings are offered by Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist pastor serving in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He writes in the spirit of John Wesley's focus on the priority of inner experience of the Triune God; scriptural holiness; ongoing sanctification; the goal of Christian perfection (or, wholeness). Brian lives a vowed contemplative life with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in North Florida. OneLife writings are for anyone seeking to live and share love, joy, and peace in the world and in devotion to God as she or he best understands God.
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