Helping A Friend In Need

Helping a Friend in Need

Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

A couple of quick raps on the hospital-room door announced we had a visitor. Tim and I called out a greeting, and the door opened quietly to admit Phil, one of Tim’s friends from CrossFit. An hour earlier, Tim had ruptured his Achilles during a 5 a.m. exercise class. A friend from the class had driven him home, and after Tim woke me up, I took him to the hospital, where we were now waiting to have his leg examined.

Rummaging through the plastic bags he’d brought in with him, Phil pulled out an extra T-shirt, a pair of pants, breakfast sandwiches, muffins, and a sports drink. “I grabbed everything I could think of,” he said. “Everything I needed but didn’t have when I got hurt.”

Over the next hour, Phil chatted with us, made us laugh, and offered to drive Tim around if he needed it. Phil’s compassion for Tim and his situation was motivated, in part, by a shared experience. He knew what it was like to be the person in the hospital bed, uncertain and facing surgery. He also recognized that in our early-morning haste to get to the doctor, we likely hadn’t had the time or forethought to eat breakfast or bring extra clothes.

Though we love celebrating with our friends, the apostle Paul reminds us that we’re called to share in their hardships as well. It’s easy to empathize with someone who is in pain or offer to pray for them, but how often do we take the extra step of providing actual, tangible help? As friends, it’s important not just to support the emotional needs of the people we care about, but to consider their physical needs as well. Jesus demonstrated the importance of meeting the needs of others when he fed more than five thousand people with two loaves of bread and five fish. As Christians and as friends, it’s our responsibility and privilege to do the same for those around us.

— Kristin

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Find a tangible way to support a friend in need, whether it’s by bringing them a meal or offering to run an errand for them.