What makes a good friend? For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with the point.

Perhaps it's the clarity that comes from enduring a difficult period, but I've noticed, and myself and

others, a diminishing tolerance for uncomfortable or unfulfilling social interactions. That's what Melissa

Kerch recently wrote in the New York Times. Reflecting on some of the impacts of the pandemic,

Curse repeats what has become a cultural orthodoxy.

If certain relationships are a drag on your health, time, happiness, or resources, ditch them.

Now, of course, scripture does say that bad company corrupts good morals, but it also says bear one another's burdens,

and not only to love our neighbors, but also our enemies.

In other words, one of the reasons friendships are so fragile today

is because our modern notions of friendship get everything almost exactly backwards. They're

selfish instead of self-giving. The character ingredients that a friendship needs to survive are

incredibly rare. Humility, patience with the faults of others, willingness to laugh at ourselves.

G. K. Chesterton said it this way.

Sociability, like all good things, is full of discomforts, dangers, and renunciations.

Real friendship isn't for the self-interested. That's why it's so rare. It's also why it's worth it.

I'm John Stone Street.

Hi, I'm John Stone Street, president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

Over the last year, the podcast has grown dramatically, as has so many other initiatives

from the Colson Center, especially the Colson Fellows program.

And for all of that growth, we thank God.

And we're so privileged to partner with you in the work of advancing a Christian worldview

and providing the sort of understanding of our culture that only a Christian worldview offers.

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