With the close of 2006, there are some conclusions that naturally have come. One that I am most thankful for is a relationship that ended this year.

Through the natural course of our lives, we come in contact with many persons. Some are colleagues, some are mere acquaintances, but some we extend our friendship to in a way that impacts our lives. What people tend to forget is that our friendship rarely comes without a cost–sometimes a great cost. But, inasmuch as love means sacrifice, it is part and parcel of the friend relationship to pay that required price–and to keep no record of that cost.

Only when, for whatever horrible reasons, that friend relationship is destroyed and one looks back on it, does the mental inventory of time spent, respect given, deference shown, concern granted, prayers whispered, hopes shared, money expended, and general goodwill offered eventually begin to add up and show one the sum total of the cost of a friendship. We don’t seem to notice this when it is worth the cost. But when there remains nothing but the ashes of a broken trust, the cost looms high in the memory’s eye, especially when the person from whom we are estranged came to us in the name of the Lord.

And so, as 2006 comes to an end, I am choosing to look at the cost of the friendship I have seen die due to horribly sinful reasons as a woefully small tribute that I have made in sacrifice to the Lord. It was for his sake I endeavored to pursue this poor, broken friendship in the first place. I am persuaded that I am of the same mind as He in regards to the way everything self-destructed. How do I presume to know? His chief aim is His glorification, and the demise of this friendship showed not one iota of concern for God’s glory. End of story.

Am I sorry the relationship ended? Certainly. Am I sorry that I am no longer required to pay the price to maintain it? Not in the least. I have regained a large portion of my life and personal income. In many ways, I have shed a huge headache. I realize now that the friend I thought I had was a coward hiding behind what he viewed as power due to his profession and his self-proclaimed ministry. Worst of all, he was a liar, unstable in all his ways. Eventually, even when one has the best intentions for befriending such a person, the liar brings nothing but instability, turmoil, and disaster to all around him. Then, having left a new wake of destruction in his path (as opposed to all his previous wakes), he will slink away as destructively to suffer in his own self-created misery of solitude and guilt. It’s a place I am glad I do not have to live, and I wish he’d realize he doesn’t have to live there either. However, knowing as I do his penchant for paranoia and stiff-necked pride, I do not anticipate his return to my life. As an early Christmas gift to myself, I am letting go any hope I had that he might relent and turn from his horribly destructive path of thievery and deceit. I had high hopes, but they have been dashed, so I now am passing from caring to indifference.

A closing door is often a relief. I know this one is for me, and a reason I am glad to see 2006 go.

PS If you don’t like it, sue me!