"Got Friends? ...Been One?"

Scripture Passage

1 Chronicles 26-28:21

Scripture Focus

Hushai the Arkite was the king’s friend. (1 Chronicles 27:33 NLT)

Observation

I’m not an administrator. That is, if an administrator is a person who’d be pleased to read the lists in today’s passage and consider who was assigned to what responsibilities in David’s kingdom and think about what each of those responsibilities were and…—well, that just doesn’t interest me.

I’m glad administrators exist. I admire people with an administrative knack. I’m much more interested in the vision David casts for his son, Solomon, and the temple he will build to honor the God of Israel.

But in the middle of all those administrative lists is an interesting designation. “Hushai the Arkite was the king’s friend” (1 Chronicles 27:33 NLT). The skeptic in me thinks, “What? King David had to designate an official ‘friend’? Did the guy have an office with a sign on the door—‘Friend of the King’?”

The “old softie” in me believes differently—and is glad David had a friend. I imagine David—as all these lists are being made out and reviewed for accuracy—saying to a scribe, “Make sure Hushai is in there!”

“Why?” asks the scribe.

“Because he’s been a good friend.”

In the thick of a life filled with people asking for this, that, or the other thing—a life full of expectations by others that could never fully be met—how excellent that David had a friend.

And, of course, my first thought is to connect myself to David—as one in need of less “friends” full of needs and expectation, and more friends simply bringing themselves for connection and relationship. My second (and more legitimate thought) is that I’ve been wonderfully blessed with several friends. My third (and most challenging) thought is to wonder how often I bring myself to others, without an “I need this…could you do that” kind of list, and simply, instead, to be a friend.