Helping the Broken
“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” Romans 15:1
Grrr. Traffic. No matter how long I’ve been walking with the Lord, boom, there it was. Lack of patience. Ugh. Long day. Trying to get to vet. Up since about 3:30 am, thanks to worrying. More sin to repent of. Why was my lane the only one STUCK? Growl. No, that wasn’t a dog. That was me, yes, growling – in my mind anyway. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere it seemed came jogging a whole bunch of really muscular, fit men from all sorts of directions. And there it was. The problem. The reason for the delay. As soon as I saw where all the men were headed, I knew. A stuck car. Broken down. Broken. In need of help. In need of being moved out of the way so the car could get the help it needed. So it could be fixed. It appeared almost surreal. Orchestrated even. Like every man had planned to be there right on time, like they knew how to work together, like they had been born to be there at the right time to do the right thing. Almost as soon as they appeared, the car was moved out of the way. It looked effortless. Total strangers synchronized to do their act of mercy for the car and its driver. And off they trotted. Back to their cars. Back to the road. Back to wherever they were headed. With not an ounce of a pompous, look-what-I-did grin on their faces. They looked like what they had done was the most natural pre-destined thing in the world to do. And off they went. In fact, off we all went – now that the traffic was no longer stuck. And then it was the Spirit of God moved mightily upon my heart. There was a message in this.
The men, perfectly fit, didn’t hesitate for a moment to jump out of their cars to run to the rescue of a broken car. We humans were created to love and serve the Lord with all our hearts, and to be spiritually fit as devoted followers of Christ – fit in God’s Word, fit in walking according to the ways of the Lord, fit in turning away from the world’s wickedness and living for God, and fit to come running to the rescue when our fellows – whether friends or strangers – are broken down. When their hearts are broken. When their lives are broken. When they are lost and hurting, when they don’t know the Lord, or when they know Him but are struggling. We were created to love God and to help our broken fellows by bringing them to the Lord and to His Word to be fixed, to love them, pray for them, share the Gospel with them, to bring them to Jesus, to encourage them, and to teach them the ways of the Lord by sharing God’s Word with them.
Traffic had still been moving in two lanes. But the men chose to put off where they were going to be available to help a broken car.
How many of us are spiritually fit in Christ and jumping to help those who are broken?