Support

Support

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

I SAT QUIETLY as I listened to a dear friend engage in conversation with her parents one evening while we were all having dinner together. They were speaking of her younger sister, whose life was currently in chaos. Poor choices and unhealthy people were wreaking havoc in her life, as everyone who loved her watched with concern over her health and well-being.

My friend told her parents that they must be honest in their concern for her sister. They couldn’t just continue to ignore her behavior and pretend like it wasn’t happening. They didn’t need to condemn her, but she needed to know that they knew what she was doing and that they loved and supported her through it all. Her parents nodded supposed understanding before her dad stated, “There’s things about your past we still don’t want to know about!”

My friend’s shoulders shrugged as she made eye contact with me, and I tried to offer her an encouraging smile. “But, Dad,” she responded, “how can you really support someone fully if you don’t want to know what they’ve gone through? If you’d rather they just didn’t tell you all the hard stuff?”

And I stared at my friend, tears in our eyes. I knew she was no longer thinking of her sister. She’d walked through her own trauma, a story I’d heard and cried tears with her through. I also knew that her parents did not know of her struggle, and her words resonated in my mind long after our evening ended. Her parents loved her, but they did not truly know all that she had been through and therefore hadn’t supported her in ways that she truly needed.

Real support comes when we fully acknowledge all the good and hard parts of another person’s story. When we can share fully and honestly everything that we have been through, and allow others to do the same with us, that’s how we share each other’s burdens. We weren’t meant to carry burdens alone. We were meant to support one another.

Lord, thank you for the gift of community and support we can find in other believers. Help us to share our burdens and help us to carry others’ burdens as well. Amen.

-Kendra

One Good Step: Who has been a good support to you? Who can you support by listening and carrying their burden with them today?