Unequal Friendship

There is no doctor who commands from me greater respect than Dr. Frank Sinatra.  Despite sharing the same name with the late famous entertainer, Dr. Sinatra bears little resemblance to the leader of the famous "Rat Pack" of Hollywood stars.  He is a pediatric gastroenterologist, an internationally known expert in childhood liver diseases, and for many years was the director of the pediatric gastroenterology training program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles/University of Southern California.  Dr. Sinatra is deeply devoted to the training and development of young doctors under his charge, and I am forever indebted to his several years of hands-on mentorship.  He also played a few years of minor league baseball with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, loves horses, is often rather self-effacing for someone of his professional stature, is committed to his family, and enjoys Italian opera.  The one time that Dr. Sinatra really got mad at me was when I brought a UCLA coffee mug into his office.  I should have known that he was a die-hard supporter of USC Trojans athletics.

I would love to be like Dr. Sinatra when I grow up...someday.

I still remember my first meeting with Dr. Sinatra after I started my training.  He reached out his hand, and offered while warmly gazing at me with his sparking eyes, "Glenn, call me Frank."

I have known Dr. Sinatra for over 18 years, and have spoken with him on countless occasions, sometimes as a colleague and friend.  However, I have never called him Frank.  I simply respected him too much to call him anything other than Dr. Sinatra.  We may be friends, but it is an unequal kind of friendship.

A similar unequal friendship was also offered by Jesus to his disciples:

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."  John 15:12-15

Indeed, Jesus called us his friends, but this does not necessarily mean that our relationship with God is equivalent to those with our friends at the office, school, gym or even at church.  The authors of the New Testament, including those who walked with Jesus on earth, never lost sight of this, as they never called Jesus "friend".  I am Jesus' friend because he chose to lay down his life for me and befriend me.  Jesus is my Lord and Savior, and that will not change no matter how long I know him.