Close Enough to Help

Sometimes, I have a “lightbulb” moment, and I begin to see things a little more clearly.   Tonight as we were sitting at the table having a sub sandwich and soda, my children and I were talking about church.   My son said, “I don’t like that they put so many church services on the television and internet because then people feel like they don’t have to go to church.”  My daughter, who loves to debate, said, “they can go to church without getting too close to people.”  As my daughter said this, the light bulb kicked on.   How can I help and encourage people if I’m at a distance?  I can’t.  Sometimes, at work, in my neighborhood, in my circles I have found that we often fail to get close enough to people to help them.  If I was walking across the road and fell, in order to help me you would need to come to where I was.  You would need to come beside me.  It’s why Christians need to meet with other Christians too.  We need the encouragement that they can offer.  The world can wear us down and by Sunday we need someone to come along side of us and tell us it’s going to be fine.  Sometimes we just need the friendly hug or a smile because all we see all week is frowns from people with many cares, cares that we can only carry to God for them.  Somehow meeting with God’s family on Sunday can destressing they rest of the week.  Just knowing that someone has our back, and they are not looking for a bus to throw us under make a HUGE difference.  The rest of the week, we’ll be ready to get close to those around us because we got close to God and our “God family” first.