When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can, to save some. 1 Corinthians 9:22
Hi everyone, Happy Friday. You know, one of the things I hope to accomplish on these Friday videos and devotions is to give you something to really send you into the weekend as you follow Jesus. This last week I was with our teams at Highland Park. We together were there, with the community of about 2,000, gathered at the one year remembrance of a shooting that happened just a year prior, a July 4th parade where seven lives were lost and 48 others wounded.
As that community gathered around, one of the takeaways that I had from talking with city officials and police officers, first responders, was this concept and idea of the whole community committing to this one basic idea: that they understood that on this anniversary, as painful as it was going to be, they recognize that so many different families and community members would be in different places in their reaction, in their processing of that anniversary.
And it really struck me because I wonder if we sometimes have lost that for other humans. We have so much judgment in our world where we’re quick to judge what is supposed to be done or what you should be doing, and we have all these shoulds and all these other things that we get wrapped up into. I walked away from that realizing how important it is to recognize that people often find themselves in different moments in this journey of life.
In fact, it was a verse that came to mind that reminded me that it was actually the apostle Paul who actually realized this, in fact, listen to these words from 1 Corinthians 9:22, “When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can, to save some.”
What a beautiful passage of Scripture and a beautiful reminder for us that all of us at the end of the day are just trying to walk with one another home. And for those of us who know where home is, we have the opportunity to help others find it. But it starts with that empathy and that recognition that many different people around us are going to be in many different places.
So how can we relate with them? How can we come alongside them and walk with them wherever they are at? I encourage you this weekend to look for those around you who may be weak and struggling or maybe simply in a different place or perspective than you are. And remember this calling; do everything you can to find those things that you have in common, so that through you, the Lord might save some.
Would you pray with me? Gracious Lord, our Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the gift of today. We thank you that you have given us this gift of life, and we do recognize that all of us are at different moments and different positions and different ideas and different parts of our growth and maturity. And yet you’re Lord of it all.
And so help us as we first recognize our own position in this journey, realizing that we’re not done yet. But also, would you give us the empathy to care for those around us who may be in a different position than we are? Have a different perspective than we have, or are simply struggling with something that we would never struggle with?
Would you give us the empathy and the ability to connect with them for the sake of sharing the most important relationship that we have? That’s the relationship we have with you, Jesus. Help us to share that with others this weekend. We ask this in your Holy and precious name. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
I pray that each of you have a great weekend and we’ll see you on Monday.