Are you a "friend" or a "good friend"?

     Mark Twain said, "Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience. This is the ideal life."  Note that Twain said "good" friends; unfortunately, not all friends are good friends. 

     Jesse Owens was the brilliant American athlete who won four gold medals at the Olympics of 1936 in front of Adolph Hitler in Germany. Owens was an African-American and the son of a sharecropper. Understandably, he was very nervous, actually frightened, because of Hitler's vicious racist views that non-Jewish, white people with Nordic features were the master race and all other groups were inferior. Although the previous year Owens had set a record of twenty-six feet, eight and one-half inches in the broad jump, a record that would stand for twenty-five years, his anxiety increased when he watched the tall, blond, white-skinned Luz Long of Germany leap in the range of twenty-six feet during practice. Surprisingly, Long approached Owens and sensed his fears. He encouraged Owens and suggested that during practice he should move his takeoff for his jump back a few

inches in order to build his confidence. Long stayed close by Owens throughout the practices and later the competition. 

After Owens won the event and claimed the second of his four gold medals, he was the first person to hug Owens and congratulate him in full view of Hitler who was in the grandstands. Long was later killed in battle in World War II. Throughout the remainder of his life Owens often said that Long was so dear to him that you could melt down all his medals and cups he had ever won and they would not begin to compare to the 24-carat gold of Luz Long. He always considered Long not just a friend, but a good friend, a close friend.

     Jesus talks about a friend who sticks closer than a brother. I have noticed a strange phenomenon where a sense of loyalty such as existed between David and Jonathan is a very rare attribute today. I have dealt regularly with hurting people who have friends who are now friends with people who have tried to injure them. All I can say to the shell-shocked individuals who feel betrayed is that it is sad when people you know become people you knew. 

I am quite sure that Jesse Owens concerning his friend, Luz Long, would agree with this memorable quote from Michael Bassey Johnson:

     "People will walk in and out of your life, but the one whose footstep made a long, lasting impression is the one person you should never allow to walk out."