The Definition of a Friend

Rev. Randall Nathan, (Retard), is on the way to the 55 year reunion of his high school class. He and Claire stopped to spend the night with a former member of one of his churches, Arch Slater. ["Retard" is how they pronounce "retired" where Randall comes from.]

There are problem church members who don't produce anything; they just complain. "We don't like the pastor. We want to get rid of the pastor. The pastor doesn't do everything just the way we want it done, and what we want is far more important than what God might want. After all, we're the ones who pay the bills, not God."

Then there are problem church members who produce the best in the pastor and the church not because they complain or demand but because they require the pastor to do his best. It's a problem, because doing one's best isn't easy. Arch was that kind of problem.

Arch was recently widowed. He and Randall were up early while Clarie slept in, sitting on the porch, talking about marriage and work and how to make sense of 70 + years of living. They talked about the questions Arch always asked, the ones Randall couldn't answer, the ones about why children die young and tragically, as Arch's son did, and why good wives suffer, the way Arch's Ethel did, while bad wives flourish. Arch always trusted Randall to be his pastor and his friend, even when he couldn't answer his questions.

Randall sat beside his old problem, his old friend, and thought to himself: This man is the living defintion of a good friend, someone who requires you to be your best self, even when you don't want to be or don't know how.