Encouragement For The Long Distance Friend

Photo credit to Annie Spratt on Unsplash.

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Maybe you’ve only met once. Maybe you’ve never met at all.

Especially as a writer, having long distance friends is almost a definite. Not only are there not too many of us out there, we are all at different levels, write different genres, and have different takes on life and how matters should be portrayed. The chance that you live close to like-minded writers is slim.

This can be disheartening. When you’ve only communicated through emails, video calls, texts, and letters, the yearning to see each other in person becomes all the stronger. It’s so hard to go through weeks, months, years of knowing people who you connect with like nobody else, only to either never meet them, or only see them a few times.

But there is beauty in these friendships.

Imagine what it would be like to not know these friends. Imagine the pain of feeling like you still haven’t found your people, the ones who feel like home. Yes, it hurts to be far away, but that hurt just shows how much that distance means to you.

Now, think about it yet another way. What if everyone in the world was just like your long distance friends? Would they really feel as special, as close, as much like your people if they were all the same? No.

God has placed each and every one one of us right where we are and He has a good plan for our future. That doesn’t mean that it won’t hurt to have long distance friends, but it does mean that your life has purpose both in the area you live in, as well as in the area your friends live as well.

Those emails, video calls, texts, and letters have the power to change lives. My long distance friends are some of the dearest people I know, and though I miss them and long to meet them in person, I’m also so glad that God has let us get to know each other and place us right where He wants us.

Keep going, keep shining your light into others, and take some time to be grateful for those long distance friends today.