This blog is for my new found friend who never get tired of me and who will stand with me no matter what happen. 

In Biblical fellowship, we should experience authenticity. Authentic friendships are more than superficial, surface-level chit-chat. They involve genuine, heart-to-heart, sometimes gut-level, sharing. 
These friendships develop when we get honest about who we are and what is happening in our lives. They develop when we share our hurts, reveal our feelings, confess our failures, disclose our doubts, admit our fears, acknowledge our weaknesses, and ask for help and prayer.

Unfortunately, this level of authenticity and intimacy is the exact opposite of fake and not genuine relationship. Instead of an atmosphere of honesty and humility, we often become involved in pretending, role-playing, politicking, superficial politeness, and shallow conversation. We begin to wear masks, keep our guard up, and act as if everything is rosy in our lives. These attitudes are the death of real friendship. 

It's only as we become open about our lives that we experience authentic friendship. We tend to use darkness to hide our hurts, faults, fears, failures, and flaws. But in God's light, we can bring them all out into the open and admit who we really are.

Of course, being authentic requires both courage and humility. It means facing our fear of exposure, rejection, and being hurt again. Why would anyone take such a risk? Because it is the only way to grow spiritually and be emotionally healthy. We only grow by taking risks, and the most difficult risk of all is to be honest with ourselves and with others.

In authentic friendship mutuality is the art of giving and receiving. It’s depending on each other. The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together, every part dependent on every other part.”Mutuality is sharing responsibilities, and helping each other, mutual accountability, mutual encouragement, mutual serving, and mutual honoring. 

In authentic friendship we experience sympathy. Sympathy is not giving advice or offering quick, cosmetic help; sympathy is entering in and sharing the pain of each other. Sympathy says, “I understand what we’re going through, and what we feel is neither strange nor crazy.” Today some call this “empathy,” but the biblical word is “sympathy.” The Bible says,. . be sympathetic, kind, humble, gentle, and patient.”Sympathy meets two fundamental human needs: the need to be understood and the need to have our feelings validated. Every time we understand and affirm someone’s feelings, we build authentic relationship. The problem is that we are often in so much of a hurry to fix things that we don’t have time to sympathize with people. Or we’re preoccupied with our own hurts. Self-pity dries up sympathy for others.

This is the way we grow spiritually and be emotionally healthy. The Bible says,