Friends, Acquaintances and Commission

I'm a Canadian living in Florida. Between birth and now (23 long years :) I've lived in 7 different cities and I've made and left many friends along the way. I miss them. Alot.
I'm very thankful to have a support system here in Tallahassee. The shear number of people who came to my son's birthday party was an indication that we are loved a great deal so I am in no way ungrateful for the loved ones I have locally. It's just that every now and then you meet people that you just click with perfectly. Who you could spend every day with and not get sick of them. People who make you laugh so hard that when you think about your past conversations in church, you start to giggle uncontrolably. Being that mutually compatable with someone happens so infrequently that it's frustrating when you can't spend your days with them. I do the best with what I have. Frequent phone calls, lots of emails and updating my blog with video and pictures on demand but I still miss you guys.
I'm learning the difference between friends and aquaintances. It's been an interesting and sometimes painful learning process but I am better for having learned it. Thank God for people who truly love others more than they love themselves. Make me more like them.
I'm glad that God doesn't make us work on commission. As someone who does the budgetting for a family who lives on commission, it can be very stressful. Basically you eat what you sell. If you don't sell, you don't eat. In most positions having a bad day is just a bad day. When you live on commission a bad day is topped with the stress of not having made the money you needed to make. Now don't get me wrong, my husband could sell hot cocoa on the beach so we're very blessed to have what we have, but there are those hot summer days when the last thing someone wants to do is buy a treadmill to sweat on and those months can be long and stressful.
Imagine if we actually had to earn our place in heaven. If we actually had to go out eachday with the idea that if we don't perform properly and do the right things, we're not going to earn God's love.
There are people in this world who actually believe that! That what we do can somehow earn our commission...our place in heaven and the love of Jesus! Talk about a stressful way to live.
Don't get me wrong. I believe we should live and act as Jesus did..in the same way that you should do your best work regardless of whether your paycheck is going to be exactly the same every week, but you know like I do that there comes a few days when all you do is hide in your office and play on myspace or youtube all day and in all honesty don't deserve the money you'll be paid for that day. I use to work in an office and I remember those days well.
Thankfully in the midst of my imperfections (as numerous as they are) God still loves me in a way I don't really understand and he has prepared a place for me. Not because I earned it but because I accepted it in exchange for my messed up self. Heaven in exchange for lame-o me....doesn't seem fair, but I've learned to not question it, just to be thankful.