When I was growing up, I loved baseball more than anything. Little league games, Big League Chew, and wiffle ball in the backyard with friends. One of my favorite keepsakes to this day is a replica Mike Schmidt baseball bat that I got as a stadium giveaway at Veterans Stadium.

Like many boys, collecting baseball cards was everything. I didn’t bother with protective cases; they were bundled with rubber bands and tossed into a box. That same box, filled with those same cards, still sits in my closet today. Occasionally, I open it and take a trip down memory lane. Interestingly, many men treat friendships the same way we treat old baseball cards.

We pull them out to reminisce but often put them back, as if we can afford to live in isolation. As Henry David Thoreau once observed, “Many men live lives of quiet desperation.” Yet masculine friendships are crucial to our well-being and personal growth.

“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” — Proverbs 18:24 (NIV 2011)

Masculine friendships can generally be grouped into three categories:

• Recreational Friends: These are the guys who are around just for the fun.
• Resilient Friends: These are the ones who’ve stood by you through life’s highs and lows.
• Resistance Friends: These are the friends who challenge and inspire you to become better.

Jesus had Lazarus. Paul had Silas. John Mark had Barnabas. David had Jonathan.

Who do you have in these categories?

As Lance Armstrong once said in It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life: “Anyone who imagines they can work alone winds up surrounded by nothing but rivals, without companions. The fact is, no one ascends alone.”

And that’s the truth—no man thrives alone.