Green-Eyed Monster

I am, by nature, an introvert; that is to say that I prefer to be alone than in a social situation. It isn’t that I am unable to be social or that I don’t get along with other people, I just gain my strength from being alone or with only a select few people while social situations drain the life out of me. I am among the few introverts on our church’s staff (ministry is kind of a social vocation, wouldn’t you say?) and as a result of working in a social profession, I am intensely selfish with my friendships and generally only have one, MAYBE two close friends. I’ve always been this way and probably always will and for the most part am happy only having had a handful of close relationships throughout my life. There is one aspect of this “lifestyle” that is probably not healthy and that is that I don’t want to share that close friend with anyone else….at all. I have a tendency to hoard my friendship with said close friend and pretty much expect them to do the same. For the most part, anyone who would desire to be in the kind of friendship that I am talking about generally feels the same way about “friend sharing” but there have been a few times when my close friend wanted to be close friends with lots of other people too and I just honestly wasn’t mature enough to handle it and jealousy and envy would take over the friendship and bring it to its demise.

Then I met Jackie. Jackie and I are cut from the same cloth; we relate on a level unlike any other friend I’ve ever had even though we are as different as night and day (well, ok maybe as night and later that night but you get the idea). Jackie is just like me as far as friendship goes, except that she can successfully have two or three of those close relationships and she isn’t at all jealous or envious of other relationships. So, essentially the price of being Jackie’s friend means sharing, which of course means that I have a little growing up to do.

A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Proverbs 18:24

Your thoughts?