It's a mystery to me
The game commences
For the usual fee, plus expenses
Confidential information
It's in the diary...
This is my investigation
It's not a public inquiry."
-Dire Straits, Private Investigations, 1982.

I have a particular friendship where a mate and I meet and muse gladly over life, and perhaps over mostly the tragedies and ironies of the journey. We laugh, and we talk about times we cried. And everything that happens there, and in between, we envisage God in the mix of it, always.

Together we can take great delight in the fact of the 'divine report card.' That testimony carries with it some sort of reckoning of our lives; marked both wise and unwise. And whilst there is few of the former, mostly the latter, we express a collective joy that it's held against us, not. The slate is cleaned. It's yet a mystery and will remain so, until we meet him at long last.

Friendship in the Lord is a divine private investigation; another mystery. We expose ourselves in a safe place and God at once begins in us a sort of private investigation, as we hear ourselves declare audibly truths we'd otherwise shun. And in friendship there is equal share; both of personal responsibility and of a burden for intercession. There exists no judgment, just love.

The process of introspection in the midst of fellowship reveals God; the Holy Spirit active and prevailing, gently, over our casual deliberations. Together, and through us, he sweeps gently,

"A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out." -Isaiah 42:3 (TNIV).

A fair and amenable judgment is issued as a result of this alliance; as is the case amongst friends. We help each other. We collude with God, provide an ear and a thought, and reflect deeply in between times, over our anointed and blessed interactions. Emmanuel: God with us!

And we thank God for this divine private investigation we call life.

(C) S. J. Wickham, 2009.