Introspection: Hands to Grab

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

Hands to Grab

Two are better than one because a good return comes when two work together.  If one of them falls, the other can help him up.  But who will help the pitiful person who falls down alone?  In the same way, if two lie down together, they can keep each other warm.  But how will the one who sleeps alone stay warm against the night?  And if one person is vulnerable to attack, two can drive the attacker away.  As the saying goes, "A rope made of three strands is not quickly broken."

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (The Voice)

There's a sea of lonely, swimming sad

Looking just for an arm to grab

I don't need to understand

I'm just lending you the two that I have

From "Drifting" by Plumb and Dan Haseltine

I wear a lot of different hats at my church, so it is not uncommon to see me in and out of my seat during worship services.  For a number of years now, I have had the tasks of ringing the church bell at the beginning and end of the service and helping to pass around the offering plate.  Both of these tasks are done at the end of the service, so, until recently, I would skip the closing hymn and exit the sanctuary the with the other man collecting the offering so that I could make my way to the usually vacant balcony at the back of the sanctuary in plenty of time to ring the bell after the benediction.

One Sunday morning several years ago, as I passed through a sitting room on my way to the back of the sanctuary, I saw Frank, a gentleman who regularly attended worship on Sunday morning, sitting on the couch.  Not long before this time, Frank had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.  ALS is a neurological disorder that causes a person's muscles to atrophy and usually leads to death from respiratory problems.¹  It was not long after Frank received the diagnosis that his health began to rapidly deteriorate.  At this point, he was unable to speak and needed a wheelchair to get around.

As I was about to leave the room, I glanced back at Frank, and he made a "come here" motion with his head.  When I walked across the room to him, he motioned that he wanted to move from the couch to his wheelchair nearby.  He grabbed my hand, pulled himself up from the couch, moved himself to the wheelchair, and sat down.  He then earnestly grabbed my hand with both of his as if to say, "Thank you."

Until now, I haven't told many people about this experience with Frank, though it moved me profoundly.  I hadn't thought about it in a long time until something happened last week.

For the past nine months, my pastor along with the pastor of another nearby small church led members of both churches on a long-term Bible study.  For the duration of the study, we all worked through daily exercises on our own and met once a week for discussion.  Sometimes the group meeting would include certain spiritual practices like Holy Communion and anointing.  Once we even had a foot washing.  Probably the most popular group practice was the laying on of hands.  Each person would sit in a chair and say a prayer request, perhaps a request for healing.  Everybody else would then lay their hands on the person in the chair while one of the pastors prayed for the person.  This practice was so popular with the group we decided to end the final session of the study with it.

A recent chain of events in my life has knocked me down a peg and taken the wind out of me, spiritually speaking.  I cannot go into details, but the whole experience has left me feeling unmotivated, spiritually dry, and distant from God.²

When my turn came to say my prayer request, I said that I've been in a "bad place" lately but that I couldn't fully put my feelings into words.  I closed my eyes and felt as the rest of their group laid their hands on me.  Among the people in the group was Maxine, a woman who has been my friend ever since she taught me in Sunday school when I was a little child.  I noticed that she was not touching my back or my head but rather holding my hand.  I grabbed her hand with both of mine, and I was taken back to that sitting room with Frank, realizing that I was now the one who needed to grab someone else's hands.

I then came to understand one reason that we need the Church.

It has been said that a person cannot ride on someone else's coattails in matters of faith.  I think that this is probably true to some extent, but what if there came a time in your life when you didn't have any other option?

When Jesus began His public ministry, he brought healing to lepers, to the sick, and even to those disturbed by demons.  People began talking about these miraculous healings, so naturally Jesus drew a crowd everywhere He went.  When Jesus comes back to Capernaum, word spreads about His return, so people begin to gather at the house where He is staying.

In this town lives a paralyzed man, and when his friends hear that Jesus is in town, they decide to carry him to Jesus.  When they arrive, there are so many people present, they can't even get into the house.  These friends are not going to give up so quickly - they will do whatever it takes to get their friend to Jesus.  These men had the audacity to climb to the top of the house, tear a hole in the roof, and lower their friend into the house in front of Jesus.

There are numerous stories in the Bible about people who come to Jesus seeking healing.  Jesus is moved by their faith, and He gives them the healing they desire.  What's fascinating about this story is that Jesus is moved to action not by the faith of the paralyzed man, but by the faith of the friends who brought him.³  Jesus tells the paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven and then tells him to pick up his mat and walk.  Miraculously, the once paralyzed man is now able to walk.⁴

We live in a society that promotes a "do-it-yourself," "pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps" mentality.  This individualistic mindset has even seeped into Christianity.  We stress having a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ."  We say, "One person with God is a majority."  I am not going to argue against these things, but, whether we like it or not, the simple fact of the matter is that we all need other people in our lives.  We need each other.

We were never meant to walk through life all by ourselves, and having a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ" does not change this fact.  It has been said that "faith is always personal but never private."  The life of faith was meant to be lived with other people, namely the Church.  When I say Church, I am not referring to a building with a steeple and stained glass windows, nor am I referring to an event that takes place every Sunday morning.  When I say Church, I am referring to the community of the followers of Jesus Christ, both local and worldwide.

We need the Church because we sometimes need the faith of other people.

We need the Church because we sometimes need for other people to carry us.

We need the Church because we sometimes need hands to grab.

The truth is that there are times in our lives when we need the faith of other people because our own faith is faltering.  These are the times when we especially need the Church.  Sometimes we come to worship but don't have it in us to sing, so we need other people to sing for us.  Sometimes we need to go to God in prayer but feel too far from God to pray, so we need other people to pray for us.  Sometimes we go through times of doubt and darkness and feel as though our own faith makes a mustard seed look like a mountain, so we need other people to have faith for us.⁵

The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes emphasizes the danger of walking through life alone.  If we walk alone, then we have nobody to help us up when we fall.  If we walk alone, we have no hands to grab when we need them the most.

People were never meant to walk through life alone.  Having faith does not change this fact, for the life of faith was meant to be lived out in community with other people of faith.  If you are going through a difficult time right now, I pray that you will swallow your pride and seek out someone else's hands to grab.  If you're not going through a difficult time, I pray that you will offer your hands to someone else who is.


Notes:

1. Wikipedia: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
2. This is one reason I haven't been blogging much lately.
3. "When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'" Mark 2:5 (NRSV) (Italics added.)
4. Mark 2:1-12
5. Steve Argue of Mars Hill Bible Church says something very similar in his sermon "A Spiritually-Shaped Life."  Mars Hill Bible Church Podcast, 02/27/2011. 

The stained glass window featured in this introspection was crafted by Jan Rombouts in the early sixteenth century and is currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.