From Fear to Friendship
As a young man, when Booker T wanted to get an education but had no money to even get to the town where the school was, he heard of a job at the home of a Mrs Ruffner. And even though she had a reputation for being very strict, he decided to apply for the job - $5 a month. This is in the late 1800s.
He said that he'd heard so much about how strict and severe she was that he was quite afraid to even see her. And he always trembled when he went into her presence. But he got to know her over the months that he worked there and then he says this on page 42: "From fearing Mrs Ruffner, I soon learned to look upon her as one of my friends. When she found that she could trust me, she did so implicitly. And she always encouraged and sympathised with me in all my efforts to get an education."
From Fear to Friendship
I thought this transition from being terrified of her to being encouraged by her was quite a good picture of what happens in our relationship with God. A lot of us grew up fearing God, thinking that He is this big horrible man in the sky waiting to punish us. But if we take the time to get to know Him, we come to realise that yes, He has high standards for us. Sure, yes, He wants the best for us, but we can call Him friend because He encourages us, sympathises with us, wants the very best for us.
Jesus Calls Us His Friends
Jesus, towards the end of His ministry of course, said those famous words in John 15:15: "I no longer call you servants, instead I have called you friends." Have you moved from that place in your faith from seeing God as your domineering boss to seeing Him as your friend and encourager? Yes, we still do serve God with our lives. But we don't do it from fear and from duty, but we do it out of a great sense of joy, because He is our Father and our friend.
And so I pray that just as Booker T learned to call this lady his friend, that you and I will see our God not as a domineering boss, but rather as a loving friend.
