You could know someone for years and still not understand them completely.
I have seen many friends, over the course of the past 3 years, change right before my eyes. Some changes good, some bad, but I think the not-so-good changes out way everything else. Or maybe they haven't changes... maybe I'm the one who stepped into their lives and I'm just seeing who they really are.
Let me tell you something reader, just because people go to church it does NOT mean that their troubles/struggles are any less. I think they might actually be worse. In the past few months I have seen struggles eat away at the people I care about only turning them into complacent, prideful, and unwilling individuals. I love with them with all my heart, but there is nothing else that I can do anymore unless they change themselves.
We have become so influenced by the world that we have let our guard down and so we are attacked in our weakness. But in our weakness we become prideful, though sometimes unaware of it at the moment. Sometimes it takes certain experiences to make us turn back to where we need to be.
Hopefully in more time there will be more changes...