Unmasked | Sidekicks | Help Each Other Up

If one person falls, the other can…help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.  Ecclesiastes 4:10

A TV commercial in the ‘80’s featured an old lady on the floor crying, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” The ad was for a medical alert device, but the line was so cheesy it became a classic. The point was that the elderly can become so frail that when they fall they have no strength to get up on their own. Their loved ones are comforted to know that help is on standby. We may not be elderly, and we may never say that line out loud, but we’ve all gone through seasons when we felt like screaming it. Tragedy hits. The unthinkable happens. We did something we thought we’d never do. Panic hits when we realize how far we’ve drifted away, so we pound our fists on heaven’s gates crying, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

God’s solution for that is to have people on standby. We need accountability. Connection. Human beings were not designed to do life alone. When we try, we get weird. We may not turn into the bearded cat lady, but believers who refuse to be accountable to godly friends become a law unto themselves. We don’t recognize it when doctrine starts to veer into left field and arrogance sprouts. Self-sufficiency replaces spirituality because there is no one to guide us back to the truth. Podcast preachers take the place of true church and we think we’re fine—until we fall. And there is no one to help us up. We may have thought: “It’s Jesus and me and we don’t need three,” but we were deceiving ourselves. If it’s not your dream to be featured in a spiritual alert commercial, make sure you have solid Christians on standby.

Final Thought:  When you fall, are there trustworthy people in your life who can help you up?

Prayer: Father, please forgive me for the times I’ve tried to be a solo Christian. You want to place me in a church with people who can keep me accountable, and I them. Help me cultivate those kinds of friendships. In Jesus’ name, Amen.