Levi & Roy show that despite differences in interests, hobbies, and backgrounds, deep friendship is possible through Christ.
We first met in 2007 at a high school Bible study that you were a student in at the time, I think it was the end of your freshman year of high school, and I was still in college, and I was started leading in the high school Bible study at that time, and that's when we first met, and shortly after that we started meeting together for discipleship, and at that time we were very different. I remember I was really into sports and anything active, doing stuff outdoors, whether it was hiking, camping, stuff like that, and you were not into any of that stuff. Our taste in music was different, you know, what we did with our free time was way different, so that was definitely an interesting time when we first started meeting together, trying to find some sort of common ground, or what we both found interesting, or both enjoyed doing, stuff like that.
Yeah, I just remember you having more energy than I felt like I'd ever had in a day. I was just like, I don't know, we met at a very low point in my life, so I was pretty just tired a lot of the time, and remember you just being really excited about things, and really active, and me just kind of being like, yeah, sure, like along for the ride, kind of. It's funny, you talk about us having different interests, I'm like, I don't know what I was interested in, I don't know what I was doing besides just kind of sleeping a lot, sleeping life away, but yeah.
There was just a lot going on that I wasn't talking about, and just I had a lot of friends, but like nobody I was actually talking about what was going on at home, or what was going on in my head, or what was going on in my life, and once I started talking about what was going on, I think things changed pretty dramatically. Like, I felt like you just showed me a lot of grace, and stuck in there with me with a lot of difficult stuff I was trying to navigate and figure out, and I also feel like you just, I don't know, like I remember being kind of irritated and annoyed, like why are we studying stuff about gratitude, why are we talking about solving other people, like I felt like I had big issues, but like now I look back on that, and see like a lot of those small things that we did helped me like get out of a lot of those situations, and kind of navigate those difficulties in life, so I felt like talking about that stuff changed a lot for me, and then I felt like it made it more difficult in some ways, because like I feel like I spent a lot of like late high school, late college, seeing you be really happy, seeing you have a lot of fun, seeing this like stability, stability that you had, or just like being at peace with life, and kind of just resenting you for it, and feeling like that was just because like the type of person you were, and like just kind of mad that you had that, and like I felt like I couldn't, so it kind of almost made it harder to talk about what was actually going on, because our lives was just so different that I felt like you couldn't really relate, was pretty just like resentful of you actually enjoying life. Yeah our relationship is completely different now, I mean we, a lot of it is the all the suffering, the hardships, the conflicts that we've been through, a lot of arguments about things that we had to work through and resolve, but I feel like so much of that was just us not giving up, and being willing to continue hanging out, continue studying God's word, staying engaged with each other, and trying to continue to deepen our friendship, even though we disagreed on things, or we're you know you were going through some difficult stuff, or I was going through difficult things, and just really persevering through a lot of that, I mean I fully believe that a lot of that hardship that we went through either together or individually, and were there by each other's sides through that, really deepened our friendship in a way that probably nothing else could have.
I think you sticking in there with me was pretty significant for me, they were just like a really difficult time for me, but also like you were going through a lot in your own life, that was unhelpful, but I think we just always like studied, and I got a lot of help with a lot of things, and like God really changed a lot for me in that time, and then like once we were able to walk through that, I feel like things just like changed pretty dramatically, you know we started leading together on the high school group, leading together on a college bible study, and like walking with dudes all over, and it was just like, it was awesome, I mean that's when things got fun, it was when like that point in life I feel like is really when a lot of things changed, because it just wasn't about us, you know, I think so much before that was just walking through our own conflict, and me being stuck in my head, and whatever, but it was really I feel like when we, you know, God changing me, and getting a lot of help from you, and other people, and then us actually like solving together, and trying to follow God together, it really like changed everything. It's actually kind of funny too, because we had our own conflicts, but then once we started focusing on other people, that was really good, but then that brought different kinds of conflicts, as we would disagree about what was best for that person, or this other guy, but again I feel like we just kind of worked through it, and it was, I totally agree, it was super fun. I remember you coming over to my house so many Sunday nights after high school group, and just us talking about how awesome of a night it was, or how much fun we were having, and but yeah, it was different, you know, and I know we saw, you know, a lot of a lot of cool things happen, saw a lot of success in that in high school group, but and the college group, but we also saw a lot of people, you know, choose to not follow God anymore, or had some some pretty big losses, and so those were other things that we went through that were also really difficult, but we were, you know, going through it again together, and it was still just really joyful, a lot of fun, just being, seeing our friendship be used by God to impact other people, and working together.
Yeah, my advice for someone who's trying to deepen an existing friendship, or is starting a friendship, and wants it to be kind of focused on God, or be a spiritual friendship, is there needs to be a commitment to just showing up. I feel like for years in our friendship, I didn't know what I was doing, and was, you know, confused as to what it looked like to love and serve in our relationship, but I would just show up. I was, if nothing else, I would be there, and ask questions, and listen, and try to be open about my own life, and that was a consistent thing, and was not willing to give up on that, and we would hang out.
Sometimes it would be great, sometimes it wouldn't be so great, but we were both there, and that is, that's a huge part of it. There needs to be kind of that commitment to no matter what, I'm going to show up, and I'm going to be there. As well as getting into some good, you know, content, especially reading the Word together, praying together is super important, keeping that relationship focused on God, and what He's doing in our lives, what He wants to do through us.
That was a huge part, and that gave us a lot of common interests, common ground, things that we both love, you know, something that we both really cared about, and more than anything else, maybe we don't have as many things in common, but we at least have the most important thing in common. Yeah, I think too, like I don't, I don't really remember much about what we studied in the first five, six, I don't know how many years, like I remember that we studied the Bible consistently, but like I think that was really helpful, because like I didn't know how to talk to you. We were just so different, but studying stuff brought up the things that were important, and kind of pressed in on the things that I needed to talk about, you need to talk about, and I think that honestly went like a long way on our friendship, and just like growing us closer, and helping us talk about things that mattered at one point, but also just like in us changing, and coming to a place where we could be better friends, and we're just like different people.
I feel like our friendship is a very clear picture to me of God's grace, that I really love to think about. I mean, my childhood growing up, I moved a lot, grew up overseas, and because of that, I wasn't able to, and didn't really try to maintain a lot of long-term friendships, and so this, you know, at this point, this is my longest close friendship that I've had, and that is just super valuable to me, and a gift that God has given me through you, and I love and cherish that, because it's something that I didn't get, you know, through my childhood, but also, I think about all the stuff that we've been through, and you know, not only would we not be friends if it wasn't for God, like we wouldn't have continued to be friends if it wasn't for God, like we both would have thrown the towel in a long time ago, so it's just cool to see God's grace working that way, where He's given me this awesome friendship, but also, He has sustained it through all those difficult times of us trying, you know, having to forgive each other, resolving conflict, persevering through tough stuff, and I, you know, to me, that's just such a clear, cool way that God has provided for me and given me something awesome that, you know, I fully trust that this is going to be something that continues for the rest of our lives. Yeah, and I feel like you have never considered yourself to be a visionary, but for me, like, I did used to resent you for just enjoying life and being happy and being stable and having fun, but there was a point where I feel like God really pointed out that, in some ways, that was just me demanding more from Him and that I have a better life, but also that life that I saw you living was not just for people like you, that was actually, like, the things that I loved about your life were things that God wanted to offer me, and, um, I mean, that changed a lot for me.
I think that was, like, really visionary for me in a way that, like, you saying something or communicating something, um, just wouldn't have been like, but it really made me realize that God wants good things for me, and because I saw your life, I feel like I really believed that, you know.