Paddy Ponders Friendship! Paddy
Learns a Life Lesson at the Courthouse
By Pastor Jim Allen, Trinity
Evangelical Church
The old Posey County Courthouse
in Mount Vernon, Indiana, has seen a lot of things. Likely, more than a few
tense debates, a stack of property deeds, and maybe a nervous groom or two
waiting for the justice of the peace. But I’m betting this historic
structure—firmly rooted in the bedrock of community—had never seen a Golden
Doodle quite as captivated, or quite as existential, as Paddy
was this past Tuesday.
The Inconvenience of County
Business
Our mission was simple: file my
Honorable Discharge, my DD214, in the County Clerk’s Office. It’s a
necessary bureaucratic safeguard for all of us who once served in the military.
“Why do you do that, Dad?” Paddy
asked, head cocked with the intense scrutiny usually reserved for a dropped
crumb of bacon.
“Well, I’ve made it a habit in
every county we’ve lived in,” I explained. “It’s about making sure that if
something happens to me—you know, when I finally trade my worn-out pulpit shoes
for a pair of cloud-walkers—Grandma Carol or my kids can easily find
that DD214 for any veterans benefits. It’s the responsible thing to do, like
putting oil in the tractor before the haying season and not after it’s
seized up.”
Stepping into the County Clerk’s
Office is truly stepping into the bustling heart of the community. And there,
right in the thick of it, was the wonderful Ms. Kay Kilgore, the County
Clerk herself.
“Hello, Pastor Jim!” she chirped
with a smile that could easily melt the Wisconsin snowfalls of my youth. “And
look who’s with you! Good boy, Paddy! Try not to leave any fur on the public
records.”
Paddy looked up at me with that
signature Doodle eye-roll. I leaned down for the inevitable whispered
commentary.
“Doesn’t she know I’m a Doodle
and we don’t shed?” Paddy asked, his voice a dramatic hush. “I’m
hypoallergenic! It’s in the breed manual!”
“Miss Kay’s just teasing you,
Paddy,” I laughed. “Besides, I find your fur on everything at home. You’re a
delightful, fuzzy menace.”
We chatted a moment. Miss Kay was
one of the very first people Carol and I met when we moved to Mount Vernon and
registered to vote. Her kindness has been a steady beacon ever since.
“And Don!” Paddy chimed in,
realizing he’d forgotten someone important. “You said Don! He’s always such a
good friend and faithful member of the Church!”
“Yes, Paddy, Don was instrumental
in bringing me to Trinity. He even shared his house with us when we first moved
here.”
“The one that looks like a museum?”
“Yes, that’s the one, Paddy. But
more than the house, Don is just one of those guys who can always be depended
upon. Miss Kay and Don are both the real deal.”
The Price of Friendship: Time and
Trouble
As we headed back out onto the
courthouse sidewalk, Paddy’s paws stopped mid-prance, forcing me to stop a bit.
“Dad,” he asked, his voice a low,
sincere rumble, “how do you know all those people? I mean, they all
stopped their day, their important business, just for a quick word.”
I ruffled his golden curls. “Well,
Paddy, Miss Kay and Don are my friends. That’s the answer.”
“A friend?” Paddy tilted
his head, the universal sign of profound Doodle confusion. “What’s a friend, Dad?
Does it taste like a jerky treat? Because if so, I’d like a dozen.”
“That,” I said, suppressing a
chuckle, “is an excellent question! The great news Paddy is that the truth of
friendship is spelled out for us in Scripture. The book of Proverbs
tells us, ‘A man of many companions may be ruined, but there is a friend who
sticks closer than a brother’ (Proverbs 18:24). It’s that ‘sticking
closer’ part that requires effort.”
“And the Bible also says that to
have friends, one must show yourself friendly. (Proverbs 18:24).
And you can spot those folks, can’t you? They’re usually caring, busy people
who are willing to be bothered and, here’s the kicker, inconvenienced.”
Paddy’s tail gave a slow,
thoughtful wag, like a fluffy pendulum measuring a heavy thought. “Inconvenienced?
That sounds… like work. Can we avoid that?”
“It is buddy! That’s the metaphor.
A true friend is someone who is willing to take a chunk of their day,
maybe a piece of their peace, and be inconvenienced for you, and you for
them, as life throws its inevitable curveballs. They don’t see their daily life
just as a paycheck; they see it as a ministry—a way to serve. That’s why
someone like Miss Kay is so involved with events like River Days—she’s
willing to be inconvenienced for the community.”
“I love River Days, Dad!” Paddy
barked, instantly forgetting his theological moment in favor of recreational
opportunities. “As soon as I stop jumping all over people out of sheer
excitement, you said I can go again!”
“That’s the deal, Doodle,” I
laughed. “We’re still working on the ‘less jumping’ part. It’s called impulse
control, and apparently, it applies to us humans as much as it does to
excitable pups, especially when the barbeque fires strike up.”
Paddy’s “Pack” of Friendly
Inconveniences
“So, do I have friends, Dad?”
Paddy asked, looking up with genuine, soulful concern in his big brown eyes. “Am
I a friend-haver? Do I qualify?”
“Paddy, you have a whole pack of
them! Think about Chris, our neighbor. You love Chris; he takes you for
walks. That’s a willing inconvenience—lugging around a rambunctious Doodle who
probably thinks every squirrel is a personal affront, takes commitment!”
“Yes, and Chris even picks up my
poop in St. John’s Park so Father Rutherford doesn’t get upset,” Paddy added
with proud sincerity.
“That’s right, Paddy, and I would
suggest that someone who is willing to pick up your poop… is a great friend!
That is the very definition of being inconveniently helpful.”
“And what about Miss Mary,
our church secretary? You race to her office every week day like it’s the
finish line of a sheep-herding competition.”
Paddy’s ears perked up. “Miss Mary
makes my day! She makes me sit and counts to five before I get a hug and
a treat. Honestly, a hug is all I need, but I don’t want her to know that. It’s
an effective system,” he whispered.
“Then there’s Mr. Bill, one
of our Trustees; he always takes time for you. And Miss Trudy always
takes a moment to play. Even Miss Linda, our Church custodian, always
stops her work for a friendly word. Paddy, every one of your ‘friends’ is
willing to have a portion of their day, their schedule, or their peace inconvenienced
for you!
“Wow,” Paddy said, his tongue
lolling. “I guess I never thought about it. How can I be inconvenienced for them,
Dad? I don’t have hands to carry things!”
“Just by being yourself, buddy.
You light up the room with your infectious smile. When people see how much you value
them—how excited you are just to be near them—they feel valuable. That is the
essence of friendship: when people understand that you value them, they see you
as valuable to their lives. As the great Wesleyan Evangelical theologian, Ben
Witherington, reminds us, friendship is about mutual, self-giving love. And
John Maxwell put it simply: ‘Friendship is about loving people, not
using them.’ Even old Adam Clarke reminds us that friendship,
especially with Christian virtue in mind, is one of the greatest aids to
holiness. Don Thorsen would call it a life-giving relationship.”
The Greatest Friend of All
And that, my Doodle, brings us to
the greatest friend of all.
The Scriptures are filled with
examples of this inconvenient love. Think of Job’s friends—before their
misguided theological advice—who came to mourn and comfort him, sitting in
silent solidarity for seven days (Job 2:11). Or the powerful bond
between David and Jonathan, they were true buddies! (2 Samuel
1:26). A truly committed, inconvenient love that cost Jonathan his right to the
throne.
But the most profound statement
about friendship comes from Jesus Himself.
“Paddy, we are no longer just
servants. Jesus looked at His disciples—and at us—and said, ‘No longer do I
call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have
called you friends, for all things that I heard from my Father, I have
made known to you’ (John 15:15). Think of the humility in that, Paddy!
“And Jesus was inconvenienced for
the whole world,” I continued, kneeling on the courthouse sidewalk to look him
in the eye. “He was willing to be supremely and ultimately inconvenienced with
His death upon the cross, laying down His life for His friends (John 15:13), so we could be made right with God.
That’s a love that goes way past a five-second sit for a treat. He’s the
ultimate ‘friend who sticks closer than a brother.’”
“Wow,” said Paddy, looking back at
the courthouse, now less a place of paperwork and more a place of profound,
inconvenient realization. “I never thought about it like that before. A friend
is someone who is willing to be inconvenienced for you.”
“That’s right, Paddy. Now, let’s
go home and be a friend to Grandma Carol, shall we? I think she needs someone
to be inconvenienced by a wet nose and a little too much enthusiastic bouncing.”
For More Information: Pastor Jim encourages you to attend your Church of
choice, but if you are looking for a Church home, please feel free to join us for
the 10:10am Worship in the Trinity Evangelical Church Sanctuary. Pastor Jim and
Paddy, the dog who wants even more friends will be excited to see you.
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