Over the last few weeks I have watched a lot of basketball. A WHOLE lot. My favorite team is the Lakers and Gigi and I somehow got put in charge of whether they win or not depending on if we have pizza during the game. I don't know how it happened, but I am not complaining since I want the Lakers to win and I love pizza. It's really a win win for me. Anyway, the slogan for the NBA this year is, "Where Amazing Happens." Have you seen the shots that Kobe and King James have been making?!?! Truly amazing. It got me thinking the other day; Amazing happens all over the place, not just in the NBA. It happens every day, everywhere and we experience amazing with the people we share life with.
It was about the same time that thought ran through my head that I got an email from a friend of mine. He just started blogging for a website called ConversantLife.com and wanted me to check it out. The closest computer I had was my phone, but I jumped on the web and read his first post. My first thought was "Amazing just happened."
I've known this person for a number of years now; Too many to remember how many. I knew him as a high school kid my little sister hung out with. I knew him as a guy who could get me into Disneyland on occasion. I knew him as a spiritual leader for others. I knew him as a son that would make any parent proud, and most of all, I knew him as my own friend.
I watched my friend take on many things as a young adult and handle them all with great skill. He had dreams and aspirations and wasn't going to let anything stand in his way. I stood by him when he got married as his best man and knew he would do his very best in that relationship as well.
The picture frame and drawing shown below have sat in various places around my house, currently in our home office, right next to a picture of Gigi and I at a basketball game. About a year into his marriage various disagreements and personal issues prevented the two us from being as close of friends as we had once been. The frame below was the groomsman gift from him and the drawing was something he drew one day shortly after our friendship began fading. That's me on the left and he on the right. The plaque reads, "Thanks Best Man! Proverbs 27:17" For those who don't have that verse memorized, it says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."
About three years ago, I ran into my friend again at my sisters birthday party and over the course of our conversation that night he filled me in on the last few years of his life. His story had a few chapters in it that I didn't expect, but I will leave it up to him to tell that story. The conversation also began to rekindle our friendship. It was also another moment amazing happened.
I say it that way because our friendship is stronger and better now than it has ever been. Even though the time we actually spend hanging out is far less than it used to be, the level of respect we have for each other is far beyond where it ever was. It is now that the verse on the plaque is most appropriate. I have learned volumes from my friend over the last couple of years and absolutely love watching all the things he does in life with such purpose.
As I said earlier, my friend has just started blogging at ConversantLife.com. It is just one thing in a long list of things that I admire about my friend. Ladies and Gentleman, let me introduce you to my friend, Jim Farmer, and let him tell you his story of how amazing happened in his life.
