Martyrdom in Friendship

Sometimes we witness the death of things in our lives for the sake of doing what is right.

In my most recent experience I have witnessed the death of a friendship, for speaking words of truth out of love and charity. This friendship was one that I cherished deeply, but it quickly died and went cold after I did not say the words my friend wished to hear. The death of a friendship brings about a deep and painful loss. Feelings of loneliness and abandonment soon follow. Often it is more painful than losing a friend to a physical death, when you lose a friend in life. They still exist but have cut you out of their life because they could not handle the truth. A martyrdom of friendship. They murder it because of either truth, morality, church teaching, or fear of what they don’t want addressed. Ultimately you become dead to them, or worse, an enemy in their eyes.

Many of us have experienced this type of thing in past friendships. Perhaps you tried to help your friend with an evil addiction, or you shared your faith with them and they rejected it, or perhaps you were honest with them about a bad habit they possess. When we love our friends we want what's best for them. We will be willing to sacrifice their view of us for the sake of what is good and moral, but often that ends in their cutting us out of their lives.

Personally I don’t know how to handle this kind of pain from the death of a friendship. Time takes longer to heal such a thing because of the hope that perhaps someday they will understand. Perhaps someday they will forgive you. All you want is to be forgiven and embrace them again. But this is not always so. One must bear the pain of this death and accept this martyrdom. To continue to pray for that person and their soul, that one day you might be reunited with them in heaven.