This is the Daily Article podcast, published by the Denison Forum for Culture-Changing Christians.

To receive the Daily article directly to your email inbox each weekday morning, visit

thedailyarticle.com. Now here's today's news, discerned differently.

Note, today's daily article is by Mark Turman, pastor of Crosspoint Church in McKinney, Texas.

He is also the Denison Forum's senior fellow for church leadership.

I recently had lunch with an old friend who greatly impacted my life during my teen years,

including being instrumental in my decision

to become a Christian. The lunch reminded me of the pastor who said,

More good gets done over a cup of coffee between two friends than occurs all day long in

the counselor's office. Thomas Aquinas would apparently agree. He wrote, there is nothing on this earth to be more

prized than true friendship. Americans seem to be suffering an epidemic of loneliness,

according to a recent study, by the survey on American life. Reporting on this study, Ben Cost in the

New York Post wrote,

Signs suggests that the role of friends in American social life is experiencing a pronounced decline.

The study showed that Americans report having fewer close friendships than they once did,

talking to their friends less often, and relying less on their friends for personal support.

The article continues, per the shocking study, nearly half of all Americans, 49% reported having fewer than three close friends. If that wasn't bad enough, a mind-boggling 12% of

interviewees claim to have zero friends today,

four times as many as 30 years ago, per the survey.

As Christians, we can and should be the remedy to this epidemic.

Mark 1230 and 31 tells us that the greatest thing we ever do is love God and others.

Love is the ultimate connection word and the most sacred work.

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