Accountable Relationships

One of the things I learned from NA is that a web of accountable relationships is vital to a well-lived life. You have to have friends and companions that hold you to account, that call you when you are doing wrong. If a relationship cannot handle an honest moral challenge, it is completely worthless. I see these internet memes all the time that say things like, "a real friend will stand by you no matter what you do." Yes, a true friend will never leave your side. But no, a real friend will not let you wallow in unethical behavior without a challenge. If you cannot honestly say to a person, 'what you are doing is wrong' then you are in no kind of relationship at all.

Loyalty is not my highest value. At all. Period. There are gang members and drug dealers that are loyal. All over this world, there are the worst kind of sinners wallowing in their sin collectively, all the while telling one another, 'it is alright, what you're doing is fine', and never being disloyal. Loyalty to another person must be subverted to loyalty to God and what is right and wrong. My friends and I can tell each other the way it really is. I can take the truth. So can those I am close to.