Friendships are difficult - great, obviously, but also difficult.
Making plans. Rescheduling plans. Praying for friends. Moving away. Keeping in contact with people. Texting. Calling. Face-timing. Starting all over again.
Friendship takes work, and when it’s not reciprocated, it often feels like that work is in vain. And when working toward friendship feels like it’s in vain, friendships can fail and fall apart. Sometimes for seasons, sometimes for good.
But what about friends who don’t reciprocate friendships? The ones who don’t text back, call or try to initiate plans with you. It’s a two-way street after all. That’s hard.
It causes doubt - “Do they really value me"?”
It causes stress - “Should I reach out again? I already have twice this week.”
It causes pain - “They just don’t care.”
But those friendships are often the ones that mean the most. Our friends who are not always like us. The ones who don’t communicate like us, who have different love languages than us and who also care a lot about other people and can get stretched thin themselves sometimes. Those are the friends and the friendships worth fighting for - the ones that keep us fighting ourselves.
-Cliff
Cliff’s Note: Never stop fighting for friendship.