When my friends Matt and Hugh moved to Denver with an eye toward incarnational missional living, they set a goal of each making 50 new friends who weren’t believers. Meeting that goal required them to think through their definition of “friend.” It certainly means more than a facebook friend, but might it mean even more than someone you know who is friendly to you?
Ultimately they decided that someone was a friend when they invite you to be with their friends. Until someone feels safe enough with you to include you with their other friends, you’re probably not a true friend yet. Think through this definition of friendship in your own life. Sometimes the way we define our “friends” means the friendship might be more on our side than on theirs.