Jesus in the garden (unknown source)

I call you friends.
(John 15:15)

Jesus calls us friends insofar as we go to him, cling to him, hang onto his words, scrutinize his deeds, his attitudes, his sense of values, in order to know the Father and do his will.

To be a friend of Jesus is to have as our sole reason for living the accomplishment of the Father’s will in us and through us. This is the way Jesus was.

Jesus is our Way because he refused to have any way of his own except what the Father ordained for him; our Truth because he did not stand on anything as coming from himself but only as shown him by the Father; our Life because he was utterly selfless, an emptiness for the Father’s love.

Nearly everyone (perhaps we have to say ‘everyone’, at least to begin with), in setting out to climb the mountain of God, is really after something for self. In so far our poor, blind seeking is genuine, God is able to work to purify our motivation. This must cost us bitterly.

A fundamental resolution which, if we can hold on to it hour after hour, will leave us completely open to him and certain of our goal, is simply that God shall have all, everything he asks moment by moment.

Nothing shall matter to me any more. I have ceased to be important to myself.

I stay rooted in the heart of Jesus, drawing on the endless resources of my Way, Truth and Life…my Friend. He is steadfastly loyal to me; and on my side I must never let him down. This is possible only when I live in his heart and let him share his Father with me. This is ‘leaning on the Beloved’.  

~ ‘Living Love Meditations’ by Ruth Burrows, O.C.D.