I was thinking today about being a friend of God.

There are ancient models of people who experienced their relationship with God to be like that of a friend to a friend. The best known is Moses whose relationship with God was described as 'a friend speaking to a friend.' (Exodus 33:11) The patriarch Abraham was known through Jewish spirituality to be a man was a friend of God. (James 2:23)

I find it interesting that this way of speaking about a relationship with God seems almost foreign to many people today. I suspect that our fear of intimacy may be contributing to this decline of thinking about a relationship with the Divine as a friendship.

I participate in a monthly group of therapists. Last month we were talking about clients and their couple relationships. As we talked we also talked about our own relationship as a group. One of the members observed, "We suck at relationships!" This lead to a lively discussion of our group process.

I think that there is a tie-in here. I think many of us 'suck' at our intimate relationships. Furthermore we 'suck' in our relationship with the Divine Lover.

I would be interested in your thoughts.