The Cost of Friendship

C. S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, was a very thoughtful and perceptive Christian. He wrote some of the most poignant words about friendship: “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one. Wrap it carefully with hobbies and little luxuries. Avoid all entanglements. Lock it safe in a casket of your own selfishness. There it will not be broken. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

It costs to love. Don’t try to have too many friends. You’ll bankrupt yourself. But be a friend. Friends cost time. When we ask for time on their calendar, they simply say, “I am available.” It costs prayer. It costs energy. It costs disappointment. But it is worth it to us and to them.

—Adrian Rogers