The Daily CHEW™
Moving God’s Love from Head to Heart for Christian Professionals
You used to have a friend who knew you. Not your title, not your quarterly results, not the version of you that shows up at the leadership offsite. The real you — the one who laughed too loud at the wrong things, who said what he actually thought, who could sit in a room with someone and not perform. Somewhere between the promotion and the third kid, that friendship went quiet. Not because of a fight. Not because someone moved away. Just drift — the slow, unremarkable kind where you keep meaning to call and never do, until one day you realize it has been two years and neither of you reached out.
You are not alone in this. Most Christian executives I work with carry a friendship gap they have learned to manage but never name. They have colleagues they respect, a spouse they love, a small group they attend. But the friend who knew them — who could look at them and say something is off with you today and be right — that person is not in their life anymore. And the ache of that absence gets filed under things I do not have time for.
God did not design you to lead without being known. He did not wire you to carry weight alone and call it strength. Scripture reveals that isolation is not a leadership style — it is a consequence of a life that got too full for the relationships that once kept you honest.
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!” — Ecclesiastes 4:9–10, ESV
The friend you used to have was not a luxury. He was part of God’s design for how you were meant to carry the weight you carry. And the fact that you miss him — even if you have never said it out loud — is not weakness. It is your heart remembering what it was built for.
Clarity
Who is the friend I used to have — the one who knew me, not just my role — and when did I stop making room for that kind of known-ness in my life?
Hear
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” — Proverbs 17:17, ESV
God does not design friendship as a convenience for easy seasons. Scripture reveals that real friendship — the kind that loves at all times, not just when the calendar permits — is born for the hard stretches. God sustains leaders through people who know them well enough to say the thing no one else will say. When that person disappears from your life, something God intended for your protection goes with them.
Exchange
If I really believed God’s love designed me to be known — not just respected, not just married, not just in community, but genuinely known by a friend who sees me and stays — how would that change what I protect on my calendar this month?
Walk
Name the friend you used to have. The one who comes to mind before you can talk yourself out of it. Before this week ends, send one text — not a long explanation, not an apology for the silence. Just: I was thinking about you today. I miss this. Let me know when you have an hour. That single message is an act of obedience to how God designed you to carry what you carry. If this is the only thing I do from this CHEW today, it is enough.
With you on the journey,
Ryan
If you had to put this into one sentence for today, what would you say God is inviting you to rest in or return to?
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