Written by, Kim Johnson, Author of I Am My Sister (Women helping Women) @ immysister.org

Who goes into a storm intentionally? That’s crazy. Well call me crazy, because when my best friend got sick, I did just that. I didn’t want to sit on the sidelines.  I thought initially that I would simply document her journey through video recordings. I figured when she recovered she could look back on her battle with cancer, sort of like a “remember when” thing.

I bathed her, shaved her hair off when it made no sense to hold on to the remaining strands, I read to her, I fed her and I prayed with her for a speedy recovery. We both knew she would beat cancer, but God decided He had a better place for her and took her home.

I’m telling you these things because I want you to know that sometimes we can’t sit on the sidelines when family, or friends or loved ones are going through something; even if we want to.  Now and again, we have to jump “smack dab” right in the middle of their storm and help them battle whatever they are going through. Just like the three friends of Job.

Now Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, didn’t get everything right, but they did get being there for their friend right; especially when Job was going through a rough time in his life. The book of Job, tells us that when Job’s friends “heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was” (Job 2:11-13).

What I am saying Saints is, “we need each other, especially in the dark times of life.  While compassion should flow from us naturally it doesn’t hurt to make a plan about how best to show that compassion” (Stanley, p. 592).

Sister to Sister do you hear me? Are you willing to go into the storm with someone, simply to make their battle a little easier?

  Tribute to my dear friend: I miss you Michelle.  Would do it over and over again anytime.  It was my deepest pleasure to be there with you!!!.

 

References

Stanley, C. F. (2009). Life Principles Bible. La Habra: Thomas Nelson.

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