Everybody Needs AT LEAST Four Crazy Friends!

I wrote this a couple months back for Take Root and Write... and by request, I am posting it here... enjoy!

One of my favorite movies in the world is Sweet Home Alabama. I am a southern girl at heart and though you can take the girl out of the South, you can't take the South out of the girl! The same was true of Melanie Smooter, she may have been all "Mary Tyler Moore" in the city but at her core, she bled "Sweet Home Alabama." If I had to choose a favorite scene in the movie I would focus on the wedding that wasn't. Melanie (Reese Witherspoon) had just told Andrew that she could not marry him. Being a stand up guy, he accepted her news gracefully. However, his mother, a politician in NY (played by Candace Bergan) was not nearly as graceful. She said some choice words to Melanie, and Melanie's mama stood up for her baby girl. Candace Bergan turned and replied, "Oh why don't you go back to your doublewide and fry something." Then Candace Bergan found out what happens when somebody messes with the mama of a southern girl. Melanie, in her wedding gown and high heels planted a perfectly executed sucker punch right in the middle of Candace's face. Then in true southern form, she says, "Nobody talks like that to my mama!" I love it every time I watch it.

I can identify with Melanie. It takes a lot to get me riled up, okay well sometimes it doesn't, but generally, I am a glass half full kind of gal! But mess with my family, or mess with my friends, and in particular , my sistas... and it is on. As one of my best friends, Deanna and I have been known to say, "Uh-uh, I am taking off my high heels and my earrings and it is on!"

Lately, as my family and I have been encountering a bit of a "mess," (or "wreck" as Deanna likes to call it) my family, friends and sistas have come out in droves! As I look over my life, even today, during one of the most difficult times in my life, I feel so incredibly blessed! When I couldn't pray for myself, my sistas were praying. When I couldn't encourage myself, EVERY time I opened my email or answered the phone, there was one of my sistas or family or friends encouraging me. When Craig and I didn't know where to start looking... someone was one step ahead of us. And as always, in true Madea fashion (minus the gun and rap sheet!), Deanna was in the wings, high heels and earrings in her hands, ready to throw down if necessary! And if I did a little checking around, I am certain she actually had an army of our sistas yanking off their hoops and wobbling as they pulled off their stillettos! That is just the way we are... all of us. So, to answer your immediate thought, "Wow, this chick has some crazy friends!" Yes, I do, and in my opinion, every woman needs at least four!

Where do I get this incredible revelation? Why the Bible of course! In Luke chapter 5, beginning in verse 18,we find a person with some crazy friends!

Some men arrived carrying a paraplegic on a stretcher. They were looking for a way to get into the house and set him before Jesus. When they couldn't find a way in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof, removed some tiles, and let him down in the middle of everyone, right in front of Jesus. Luke 5:18-20

Imagine the look on the face of this man! He was probably saying, "You know guys, I do want to get healed, but really, let's not get too crazy here." But his friends would not hear of it. Their friend needed a touch from Jesus and they were going to see that he got it!

We all need at least four crazy friends like that! Friends who will fast and pray with you, friends who will move heaven and earth on your behalf, friends who desire God's best for you even when you don't feel like you are worthy of it. Friends who are crazy enough to yank off their high heels, pull off their hoop earrings and ruin their mascara as they beat the heck out of the devil through prayer and declarations.

I thank God for my sistas. He brought us together and although we're crazy... at least we're all crazy for the same thing... Jesus!

If you have not found a friend or friends like mine yet, keep praying. God will open the door to develop covenant relationships with women you will one day call, your crazy sistas!