Meet two of my friends I’ve met on this journey.  Ralph, the older guy filled with wisdom and God’s love, and Tom the doesn’t look older guy who also is filled with wisdom and God’s love.  Both have been planted in my path by God himself.

I was at a men’s event where I didn’t know a soul there (including my own).  Ralph came up to me and made me feel welcome.  Nothing unusual about that is there?  What was unusual was that he asked a specific question and told me specific things that I had been asking God and expecting only God to give me the  answer.  God was “speaking” to me through some perfect stranger that was soon to become a perfect friend.

Tom came out to the cabin for a few days.  He and Ralph are writing a book about their own spiritual journey.  Many men will relate (Details when the book is published cause I want you my friends to read about their own journeys in this book).  I had never met Tom before.  But as a bunch of us guys were sitting around, I asked him a question that caught him off guard.  Just a simple question it was.  I mean Tom had traveled over a thousand miles to be with Ralph.  They would meet at my cabin to get away and focus on their book.  My question?  Tom, what are you doing here?

A simple question but usually a complicated answer.  Tom couldn’t answer.  Not right off the bat anyways.  I probably came across a little rude in the way I asked this of him.  I mean we had just met, just exchanged pleasantries.  He’s from way up north.  Told me a little about work, family, etc.  And then Boom……. I ask no, what are you really doing here in my cabin down here in little ole Mississippi.

But I felt compelled.  I felt asking to be a “God thing”.  So I asked.  He later explained what and why he was here.  This communication we had established a bond and friendship that will grow.  It will grow like the tree in the picture.

I asked Ralph and Tom to let me take a picture beside a pecan tree that I had just grafted the day before.  This tree is now the Tom/Ralph pecan tree, (or maybe the Ralph/Tom tree).  See, everyday when I hike in the early mornings, I will walk by this tree.  It reminds me of my friends.  I will pray for them when I see this reminder.

I have lots of reminders that I keep to well, remind me of my friendships.  A special knife given to me, a turkey call, a fishing lure, a fishing net, a bird house.  It’s just the way I do things.  I’m basically a loner.  Never have been a BIG social type person.  Put me somewhere in the outdoors with a couple of animals and no people and I’m perfectly happy.  A lot of you reading this now are the same way.  Not my wife Staci!  She’s a social animal.  When I take her to the Jimmy Buffet concert in a few days I’ll be thinking that I’m surrounded by a lot of noisy people.  She’ll be thinking that she’s surrounding by a lot of…..FUN!!!!!   Whoopeeeeee!!!   Everybody sing!!!!!!!!!!

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him-a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”  Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

So, maybe at times you are a loner too.  You don’t need a lot of people in your life.  People cause problems anyways right?  Well, that’s true but even the Bible is telling you (and me) that friendships are to make us stronger.  One mistake I made a lot on my journey was this.  I would ask God for something, anything,………. and I would fail to realize He was answering me through the interaction of one of my friends,……. usually one of my “it’s a God thing” friends.

Ralph is 40 miles away, Tom over a thousand.  We don’t see each other that much.  We don’t go to ballgames or play cards.  But,…… and this is important…………. we are connected.  If or When, or Because I need that other part of the rope of friendship,  I know that I can reach out to my fellow brothers.  They are only a phone call away.

In my personal life I’ve met many people on my journey.  But when it’s a “God thing”, it’s a connection that has been “grafted” into my own life and spiritual journey that grows into a lasting friendship.  Even when all alone in the wilderness, I know that there are friends that I’ve met along the way.  Some of my friends were made on a fishin trip.  Some were made with a land deal, on a movie set, a business meeting, or a chance meeting in the middle of nowhere.   Many friends have been made from the travels and writings of this wilderness preacher blog.  I’ve reached out to you, and you’ve reached out to me.  Sounds like a “budding” friendship that can only continue to grow.

Ralph, Tom, Get that book printed.  Let the readers of wilderness preacher be some of the first to get their hands on it.  But more important is that I want to thank you for including me in your spiritual journey.  I’ve seen the “horses” that you have to ride.  You’ve done well Pilgrim!!!!!!!

By the way, take a look at how the Tom/Ralph tree looks after only a couple of weeks.  This tree as well as your own lives Tom and Ralph are producing fruit in the future.