I have always hated when people would tell me that there is a time to let go of things, especially when it comes to friendships. Maybe it's because of my struggle to see my own worth, maybe it's my need to please others, or maybe it's something entirely different but I struggle to let people go. Even when they do more harm than good.
When graduating high school, I read all of the things that talked about the dissolution of high school best friendships and it made me mad. If you care enough about your friends shouldn't you work at keeping those friends in your life? Although, several times come to mind about all of the unhealthy friendships that I clung to.
On my nineteenth birthday, some of my old friends left me on Hillsborough Street after I had too much to drink. The reason I was drinking was to try and impress those same friends and since I had yet to make new ones, I clung to them despite them leaving me in what could have been a dangerous situation.
Sophomore year, I had some serious struggles with mental health and some hard friendship losses. Then, the most recent of my friendship struggles happened this summer. Each of these was incredibly difficult but necessary. People are going to fail you. Even the ones who love you the most. Especially the ones who love you the most. You are going to fail others too.
Sometimes these failures cause friendships to end, whether we want them to or not.
Friendships can be for seasons, which sometimes is a good thing.
Sometimes friends come back into our lives. Forgiveness is beautiful. Sometimes we give people second or third or fourth chances and the friendship still doesn't work. That does not make us failures.
Jesus is the one and only friend who loves at all times. Does that mean we give up on people? No. But we can't expect them to do what only Jesus can, which is to love us perfectly. Instead, we can do the best we can to love our friends and nurture our friendships, but know if we need to let go, we will be okay.
In the words of John Green, "I don't know a perfect person. I only know flawed people who are still worth loving."
