A friend’s nephew died in Iraq, a casualty of war, found by a sniper’s bullet.

He died in Iraq because he lived in Iraq. How simple is that? Very simple. Yet profound, I suspect.

Anyway, my thoughts wandered that little bit, connecting “real life” with this Scripture:

“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:4).

I wonder if the opposite is true: No man entangled in the affairs of this life warreth; thus he fails to please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Am I at war?

What kind of a warrior am I?

How focused am I on the mission?

Do the affairs of this life entangle me?

Is my Commander pleased with me?

“This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes” (2 Timothy 1:15).

Sometimes it seems like some of my friends are drifting away from me.

Then, also like Paul, I remember other friends . . . .

“The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain” (2 Timothy 1:16,17).

I am so thankful for steady, faithful friends like Jake and Joe.

This all reminds me of a verse in Proverbs . . . .

“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (18:24).

Here’s my rough-and-quick translation of how it’s rendered in Spanish: “The man that has friends is to show him a friend . . . .”

Maybe I’m not conducting routine maintenance on my friendships.

Perhaps it isn’t so much that some friends are drifting from me, but more that I’m drifting from them!

Hmmm.

Then I wonder something else: Just what kind of friend am I? Am I a verse 15 friend or a verse 16 friend?

Oh wow!