There's something about chilling with like-minded people. Imperfect people who love Jesus, who are real and are not afraid to share some of their struggles and challenges with you. That's what my day was, and it was a big deal to me.
Are you lonely? If you're looking for friends, I've got some suggestions:
1. Don't be scared to be friends with people who seem different from you. My best friends at this point in my life are unlike me in most ways. They're not rappers who love to listen to hip-hop most of the time, they don't dress like me, they don't talk like me, they're not perfect (neither am I), and we don't agree on everything or get along all the time, but they're real.
2. Don't neglect your local Church community. Many of my friends go to my Church. Many don't. I was once ignorant to the fact that their are many other Christians around me (at school, work, etc). I have made Christian friends outside the church by just simply being friendly and talking with a random person, only to discover moments (or more) later that he/she is a Christian.
Am I sounding to Christian-y for you?
Here's some more suggestions:
3. Be nice to non-Christians too. Being nice helps making friends easy. I once was that Christian guy who was awesome to Christians [that I knew] but a jerk to non-Christians, which also led to me being a jerk to people I didn't know were Christians. The Bible says to Love God with all your heart and to love your neighbour as yourself. This includes your family, physical neighbours, local community, state, province, country and the world... everyone.
4. Smile. I've heard this numerous times. Read it numerous times also, but that doesn't make this common sense. People that smile more seem friendly, so probably will make more friends also.
5. Share personal stuff (your challenges). This is something very VERY not easy for me. I'm not saying go around sharing deep personal stuff that may not be wise to share. I'm saying, don't act like your life is perfect. Nobody has a perfect life; we all have struggles. Share them when appropriate, but don't be depressing. Be wise so that stuff you're not comfy as public knowledge doesn't end up being public knowledge.
6. Be real. Don't be a faker. Be yourself. Real friends will like you for who you are. I'm not saying be a jerk (or something similar) and expect people to like you. I'm talking about changing stuff about you like how you dress, talk, hobbies, etc, to please people.
7. God might be telling you something. Spend more time with Him. Read your Bible more, pray more, think about Him more. Many times I've felt lonely, I noticed that I had not been spending time with God much.
This is not an exhaustive list, but these are things I've noticed personally about me and about my friends who are pretty awesome. I think they work.
Try one or two of the suggestions and see if they work, then try more.
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