Where Will You Turn?
By David Faust
My wife, Candy, and I have lived in our current home for nearly eight years. We try to be good neighbors, but it’s not easy to connect because people tend to keep to themselves. (Maybe it’s that way in your neighborhood, too.) It takes time to develop trust and build relationships.
On the Friday night after Thanksgiving last year, a house three doors from ours caught fire and burned. It was nearly a total loss, and although we’re told that homeowner’s insurance is covering the damage, the rebuilding process has taken several months. Immediately after the fire happened, Candy decided we should take up a collection to help. She wrote a letter explaining the need and handed it out around our neighborhood. For several days, neighbors came to our door with cash or checks. In all, 38 neighbors pitched in. A 9-year-old girl gave $3.00 of her own money. Our neighbors—many of whom barely knew each other’s names—gave nearly $5,000 to the woman whose house burned down.
Earlier this year a shooting occurred in the parking lot of a public school in our area. The facts remain unclear, but evidently it resulted from a domestic dispute; a woman was shot near to where parents drop off their children for school each morning. No one else was injured, but it was a traumatic time for the school’s families, teachers, and administrators.
Providentially, for several years volunteers from our congregation have been serving the school—tutoring students, helping to clean up the grounds, providing juice and doughnuts for “Bring Your Dad Day,” serving pie to the teachers, and even helping to pay off the school’s lunch debt. So, when the shooting occurred, a trusting relationship was already in place. With the blessing of the principal, volunteers from our church held an early-morning prayer walk on the school grounds, asking the Lord to protect those who learn and work there.
Where will you turn when you need help? Do you have a support network of friends, neighbors, and family members you could call anytime day or night? Are you investing in relationships with others in your church and community so that when troubles come, no one has to face them alone? The Bible says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).
At a pivotal moment in Jesus’ ministry, the crowds turned away from the Lord, and he asked his twelve apostles, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:66-68).
When there’s nowhere else to go and others drift away, the Lord will be there for you. He is “a merciful and faithful high priest” who empathizes with our suffering and “is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:17-18).
Here’s another question: Are you the kind of person others turn to when they need help? Are you staying so close to Jesus, our merciful and faithful high priest, that others know by turning to you they will find mercy and grace in their times of need?
Personal Challenge: Think of someone who needs help right now. This week, give them a gift, write them a note, take them to lunch, or do some other act of kindness to share God’s love in a practical way.
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