How Inspiring Are Your Friendships?

Wisdom Nugget: "It's better to have a partner than go it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. And if one falls down, the other helps, But if there's no one to help, tough! Two in a bed warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night. By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped."

Source: Photo Pin

The dictionary defines INSPIRE as, "to influence, move, or guide" or  "to exert an animating, enlivening, or exalting influence on."

Inspiration is a very vital part of our lives today. If you've lived long enough in life you'd have realized that there are times when you seem not to be certain as to what fork on the road to take; sometimes we feel like just giving up on the journey altogether. It is at points like these that the presence of friends are most needed to influence, or guide us rightly. To enliven or animate our "inanimate-ness" as it were, for our life's steam seem to go out here. Arnold H. Glasow said, "A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down."

John Newton is best-known as the author of the famous hymn, "Amazing Grace," his life teemed with spiritual fruit. A new biography on his life by Jonathan Aitken gives us a peek into the legacy of the man who said, "I am a great sinner, but Christ is a great Savior." Newton was an author, preacher, and hymn-writer, perhaps his most profound legacy is the fruit of his friendships. Newton was friend to William Cowper. Cowper suffered throughout his life from a terrible depression. But the window of his most productive years opened when he met with Newton. During this time he produced works like, "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood." One biographer noted, "Cowper, throughout [his] life, lacked personal initiative." The encouragement from Newton, however, was enough to spur Cowper to produce some 60 hymns. And when Cowper later sunk into such a depression that he nearly took his own life, it was his friendship with Newton that stopped him. Newton also played a vital role as friend and mentor in the life of William Wilberforce who led the charge to abolish the british slave trade and ultimately slavery itself in England. When Wilberforce came to faith, he turned to Newton for advice. It was Newton who encouraged him not to abandon politics but to use his political skills for good. Newton who encouraged him to take up the cause of abolishing the slave-trade, and it was Newton who encouraged him to persevere when he considered giving up the fight in 1796. Well into his later years, Newton continued to bear fruit in his friendships. He helped bring a young writer by the name of Hannah More to faith. She went on to start the modern Sunday School movement. And he met for breakfast frequently with a young man by the name of William Carey, who would become a missionary to India and a pioneer for the modern mission's movement. Newton would not have considered himself a great saint, but a great sinner used by God. His life reminds us all of the profound impact that deep spiritual friendships can have. And it encourages us. Hear Albert Schweitzer, "In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit."

We must live our lives such that we can be great sources of inspiration to those around us who might already be considering "throwing in the towel".