Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Conclusion and Next Steps

As a woman reflected upon her life, she realized she had spent many years in what seemed like an extremely large maze. As much as she had tried to diligently find her way out, she only found an endless labyrinth of passageways and dead ends. Each time she reached a dead end, she would feel a little more discouraged that she was still stuck in the maze. But her strong desire to eventually find a way out continued to motivate her to turn around and continue her diligent search. After many years of searching and finding only dead ends, she began to wonder if she would ever find her way out. But she knew such thoughts would only slow her down in her quest. So she determined that no matter how many discouraging thoughts would cross her mind, she would still try to continue onward.

One day as the woman was trying once again to find her way out, she walked down a sequence of hallways, and instead of hitting the usual dead end, she found a door. She became very excited, since it was the first door she had ever seen in the maze. Next to the door were many keys hung upon the wall. As she looked at the keys for a while, she took a rough estimate and guessed there were at least three or four thousand keys. Even though there were so many keys, she became very excited at the thought that hopefully one of them would enable her to get out of the maze! So, she quickly began to take each key, place it in the door lock, turn it as far as it would go, and then push on the door to see if it would open. But each time, the door would not budge.

After hundreds and hundreds of keys, the woman began to get quite discouraged. She began to wonder if any of the keys would even work, and even if one did work, would it really be a way out or only lead to another sequence of passageways and dead ends? As she thought about turning around and looking for another way out of the maze, she realized that if she did so, she might never find her way back to this door which could possibly be her only way out. So she decided that no matter how long it might take, she would try every one of the keys.

After many hours and many more keys, the woman found a key that turned further in the lock than the others had. As she continued to turn the key she heard a click. She then pushed on the door, and it began to open! Her excitement level skyrocketed! As she opened the door she saw sunshine for the first time and before her was a beautiful meadow!

The woman was so thankful she had found the key that had worked, that she took the key out of the door lock and took it with her as she walked out into the sunlit meadow. With the light being better outside than in the maze, she could now see that there were letters engraved on the key. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she looked closer at the letters and saw that it said, “Friendship with Jesus is the key to life.”

Years later, as the woman reflected back on these events that had occurred in her life, she realized that friendship with Jesus had indeed unlocked what she had always been looking for in that it had opened the way toward wonderful friendships with Jesus and others. A big smile broke across her face as she became so very thankful that she not only finally knew why she existed, but that she had found the greatest treasure of knowing Jesus as her best friend!

***** End of Story *****

Like the woman in this story, I too am very thankful and feel very fortunate to have found that the key to life is friendship with Jesus. I hope this conclusion is easily seen from what I shared in the prior chapters. I also hope this book has been an inspiration for you to grow in your friendship with Jesus and others as well.

If you asked me to recommend other things that would be helpful to you in growing toward deeper friendships, I would give you the following three suggestions.

The first thing I would suggest is a prayer, in which you would ask Jesus to grow you over time to become a wonderful friend of His. This suggestion is based on the realization that only Jesus can truly grow us toward deeper friendships with Him and others, and therefore it is helpful for us to look to Him to do so.

My second suggestion is that you would get a copy of At His Feet (which you can purchase at www.OrderAtHisFeet.com). At His Feet is a book I wrote especially for a person new to their relationship with God, but it has also proved to be helpful to those who have been in relationship with Jesus for longer periods of time. The reason I suggest At His Feet is because it has many practical suggestions for how to grow in one’s friendship with Jesus. And growing in our friendship with Jesus is the biggest key to our growing in our friendships with each other. At His Feet also has an appendix that gives some practical ways to read the Bible, since the Bible is a fantastic resource that Jesus can use to help us to grow in deeper friendships.

My third suggestion is for the future. I hope someday to write additional books that are very practical and helpful for one’s life with Jesus. So, if and when these books become available, I hope they turn out to be quite valuable both to you and to others as well.

Thank you for allowing me to share my heart with you through this book. I hope the things I shared have already been helpful to you, and in the future will continue to be helpful to you in your journey toward deeper friendships.