What makes faith grow? What can lift your weary heart when you’ve been praying and believing for weeks and months and maybe years for a situation to turn, a miracle to happen? 
 
You may have started out with bold statements of faith about God’s healing power. You may have declared with certainty God’s ability to save even the most lost person in the world. But now your faith is wavering and what was at least mustard-sized seems to be shrinking in fear and doubt and misgivings.
 
You’re in good company.

Finding a good friend is sometimes easier said than done. The long two years of the pandemic haven’t helped, polarizing people with varying opinions on masks and vaccines and gatherings. It can be tempting to pull back and allow yourself to become isolated – but to do so means to lose out on the value of true friendship.
 
If we opt out of the work of building a friendship, we can end up like the guy I encountered in a Southern California park one day. I’ll call him Joe, and Joe had an advantage...