He was a member of the Northside Mennonite Church in Omaha, Nebraska. He was my very best friend and elder to me for over 20 years. He was a man of great worth, a servant of the Most High God and my friend. If loneliness is a problem in the modern world (and it is, definitely), friendship ought to be highly valued. It is, but many struggle with a loyalty gap, the feeling that relationships (marriage, friendship, employer-employee, etc.) are temporary at best, to be dissolved whenever one feels like it.
This situation isn’t new, as this verse makes clear: “Many proclaim themselves loyal,but who can find one worthy of trust?” (Proverbs 20:6) Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is really faithful. The New Testament introduces something new in the concept of friendship: Jesus’ followers are not just pupils or servants but friends. As such, they are our should be friends of all other believers.
Love, something almost always associated with man-woman or parent-child relationships, becomes key in the whole notion of friendship. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” (John 15:12-15)
In the Bible, church refers to a community of brothers and sisters in the faith, in other words, friends—not a building. This does not mean every Christian is going to be best friend and companion of every other Christian. It does mean we have a stake in others’ welfare. We are both friends and family. “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10: 24-25)
I have had seven heart operations from 2007 to 2011 and Elder Wallace Barron was always nearby waiting with my family. What a friend. I’ll miss him so much.
What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!
Wallace Barron was a member of Northside Family Christian Center in Omaha, Nebraska, and the husband of Pat Barron, known to many as the owner-operator of Big Mama’s Kitchen in North Omaha. We extend our sympathy and prayers to Pat and her family, to Bill and to others whose lives were blessed by Elder Barron.
Bill Hartwell is an ordained prison chaplain in the Central Plains Mennonite Conference. He lives on Omaha, Nebraska.
