Challenges, discouragements and difficulties are equal opportunity aspects in all of our lives. They make no discrimination as to who they attack or whose life they attempt to undermine. They are something we wish we could avoid at all costs, but seem too often to come with significant turmoil to our lives, and usually at the most inconvenient of times. Oftentimes they involve people with whom we live, work, are related to or with whom we shared a meaningful experience.

People can disappoint us, betray us, undermine us or abandon us and we cannot simply take the posture of “the more I know people, the more I love my dog!”

You’ve probably been there before. I know I have, and not too long ago. And that’s when you really find out who your friends are. As one modern leader in the midst of heartache declared, “You don’t know who you friends are when you are on top of the world. You know who they really are when the world is on top of you.”

A while back when going through a very difficult time, watching people distance themselves from me, I found myself in a particularly lonely place. It was then that a friend I had known for years, emerged to the forefront and stepped up in a great way for me. When I asked him what motivated him to do it, I’ll never forget his answer. “A friend is someone who, when every one else is walking out the door, walks in, pulls up a chair and says how are we going to get through this together?”

So who is a friend like that to you? And more importantly, are you that type of friend?