“So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.” Job 2:13
These are tough times we are going through. Maybe not as tough as what Job was going through, but tough nonetheless. And sometimes there is very little we can do to really help one another. Sometimes the best thing we can do for one another is to do what Job’s friends did for him. As the events of Job unfold it turns out that Job’s friends got a lot of things wrong. But not this. This they got right. Sometimes the best thing, the most helpful thing is to just show up. You don’t really need to say anything; just show up. You don’t really need to do anything, just show up.
As we face the problems of modern life we come to realize that in many ways we are powerless to really do much about them. What are we to do about all the problems that Covid 19 has caused? Or the price of gasoline? Or all the mothers who are worried that they cannot feed their babies because suddenly there is no baby formula at the store? On and on it goes. What are we going to do about it? Well, I would suggest we take a lesson from Jobs friends – and add to that example a very powerful and important verse:
“not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25
Our assemblies are one of the best ways we can be of help to one another. We don’t really need to do all that much. We don’t really need to worry about what we are going to say. What we really need to do to be of great help to one another is very simple: just show up!
Gary Dent