WHAT DO YOU DO?
It's so hard to know what to do sometimes. It's hard to know if you are a help or a hindrance. We like to think we will drop everything and do what is necessary to help them. But we sometimes are selfish and think about our day, our plans, our time.
We are asked to pray and we fall asleep while praying. Or we say yes and then put the request on the back burner of our minds while we prioritize our lives. If "a friend loveth at all times", would a friend let another simmer on the back burner in a stew of distress, heartache, sorrow or need as we bake a cake for our own pleasure? I don't think so.
The past few weeks the Lord has allowed me to be a part of someone's life who just needed me "there". I've done whatever it took to be "there" while sitting behind this monitor [as that was all I could possibly do]. At times it was enough. Other times it seemed so little... not enough. I am grateful for the time the LORD has given me to listen, to speak a word of encouragement. I have learned alot about faith in these days. Only God can right some wrongs. Only God can fix the unfixable. We humans are limited by geography, circumstance, means and health. That is just the fact of the matter.
So, dear friends, and readers whom I hope become friends, I'm of the opinion that when a friend is troubled, we must be all we can be in the moment, with as many resources as we have at hand. We do not have another moment. We only have the one we are in. And in that particular moment, I think we must not waver in sharing truth, being honest, fulfilling promises, and sustaining loyalty. I think we must, at all costs, reserve judgment, avoid criticism, and refrain from impulsive bloviating. I think we need to listen, and listen carefully to what is, and what is not being said. We need to pray for discernment of God's will in our friend's life and our own. We must realize that at any given point in our lives we could very well be that troubled friend in need. How do we want to be treated? My friend's greatest compliment came in the form of a scripture verse:
"I rejoice that I have complete confidence in you." 2 Cor. 7:16
I so pray I can live up to that confidence and be all God wants me to be for a troubled friend. However, we have to recognize and accept that we too are human. We have limitations. We cannot be what we cannot be. We can only be what God calls us to be. And sometimes our presence is merely a vapor in the wind, a flower that blooms and quickly fades away. We cannot beat up on ourselves if we cannot be the "everything" needed by a troubled friend. Nor can we beat up on a friend for not being our "everything" in our hour or day of need. It works both ways.
