People Pull Together During Difficult Times
"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." -- Galatians 6:2
It is refreshing to see the world respond to the vast destruction in Haiti. Tears fill our eyes as a daddy pleads for help to find his missing daughter. Our hearts break at the dazed look on the children's faces. We send money. We donate cases of water. We want to help.
I wish we wanted to help as much closer to home. This isn't meant as a criticism of any gift to Haiti. It is necessary and much needed. It's just that we are called to care for others every day of the year, not just when an earthquake ravages another country. Really, how difficult is it to take someone who is sick a bowl of hot soup? Or to visit someone in the nursing home?
Of course, it does happen. We do step up. It's just that we usually wait for something horrible to happen to remind us of what really matters.
I see a family and their friends pulling together after a car accident alters a life forever. We are reminded that good health is ours only by God's grace. It is scary how quickly our lives can change. Suddenly a vibrant young man, a husband and father, is lying in a hospital bed unable to even breath on his own. Yet bills must be made, children cared for, a wife comforted and consoled.
I'm reminded of how the community came together for a barbecue fundraiser to raise money to keep a family going while their three-year-old child battled cancer. Mom took a leave of absence from her job to make the weekly trips to Birmingham and to be there during the frequent hospitalizations. The money from the fundraiser meant they could survive financially.
People care. They carry each other's burdens. They do. I just wish we didn't need something awful to happen to remind us that we should reach out every day. People matter. They just do.
Closer to home, we
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