God keeps a different group of friends than I would keep. Of course there are those of you who love him the best you can and we'd probably share you as friends. But I put his other friends in three categories:

• Reprobates with messy pasts. People like Paul, Moses, and David who have hurt or even murdered others and have blood on their hands.
• The silent majority. They may have loved God at one point, but it's hard to tell what they believe.
• Flaky Christians. A well-known evangelist whom we'll call BH prayed for three people I know with cancer. He pronounced each of them healed. Two of them died and the third is dying. And their loved ones didn't appreciate being told that they were going to live when in fact they weren't healed at all.

Once, one of my former pastors saw BH on the television and told God, "He's such a flake - why do you bless him?"

He was surprised to hear God answer back, "Because he trusts me."

God backs up BH by answering his prayers because BH believes in God's power to heal. Not as frequently as BH might claim, but sometimes.

It helps me to think about my flaky, eccentric friends who trust me. I have grace for them. I don't endorse or excuse their flakiness, but I don't dismiss them either. It just goes to show you how much God wants to be trusted.

I've determined to try to abstain from pointing my critical finger at the flakes and to focus instead on trusting God more.