“Who can you call at midnight when everything has gone wrong?” This question shook me when I first heard it years ago. How many of my friendships were strong enough that I could impose on them in my hour of need? I wasn’t sure.

Scripture has much to say about friendship, describing a friend as someone who keeps confidences (Proverbs 16:28), shares advice (27:9), and respects boundaries (25:17). But perhaps no one defined friendship more powerfully than Jesus. While to advertisers we are markets and to employers we are staff, to him, the Master of all, we are “friends” (John 15:15). Jesus described his kind of friendship as being built on shared love of God and personal sacrifice (vv. 13, 15)—something He himself modeled and called us to pass on (v. 12).

A couple of years after hearing that question, my wife and I suffered a significant loss. Darren, one of the few who knew what happened, traveled two hours to see me, listen to my anger and pain, and pray for me. Darren is a busy man who had plenty of other things to do with his day. But he followed Jesus’ example of sacrificial friendship. I really did have someone in my hour of need.

The question now is whether others have a “friend at midnight” in me. For there are few better ways to make more friends than to be one.