“Behold seven years of great abundance are coming in all the land of Egypt, and after them seven years of famine will come, and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine will ravage the land.” ~Genesis 41:29-30
We all know them. They’re the ones who “got your back” during those luxurious 7 years of plenty, that longest summer that you thought would never end. You all sat around enjoying life and they were your best friends ever. You even coined the phrase “best best friends” to distinguish them from the frantic herds who wanted to hang with you back then. Yet, now, when the crops have begun to dry up and the lazy days are petering out they’re nowhere to be found. And winter is coming.
I’ve never understood people like that. I mean, obviously it’s easier to run when tough times come, like the people who brag about not having kids, saying that they can always “give them back,” because responsibility isn’t easy. Running away is easy. I think it was Martin Luther King Jr. who said that the measure of a man can be made judging by where he stands in times of difficulty, and I agree. Life isn’t always easy, and where we stand when things are hard defines us, because that’s when we have to make the tough decisions. Friends come and friends go, but the friends you have at your lowest point are your true friends; it doesn’t improve their social standing to maintain their friendship with you, and they do it anyway.
Fair weather friends are the hardest to get over, too, because you probably had absolutely no idea they were just fair weather until the storm clouds came. If most of your life was spent in summer the harshness of winter can be bitter, and the hardest part of all are the friends who disappear. Usually they’re not trying to be mean either. They have just spent so much of their own time not having to make tough decisions that when faced with them they are paralyzed, unable to make those decisions. They are fair weather because that’s all they’ve ever known, and god have mercy on their souls when winter comes for them.
Sam
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