Lay down under the night sky. Stare intently at the stars. Did you know some of the light you see is a ghost, the echo of something dead? Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. That means we can watch the last breath of life of a star that died ages ago. Our own Sun is a yellow dwarf, among 100 billion other stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, and our galaxy is among more than 100 billion other galaxies in the observable universe. Starting to feel small? Starting to at least get a glimpse of the vastness of everything? And yet...you matter, we matter, our lives matter. Psalm 139:13-14 reads, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
Do you know the least effective way to help someone? Try to immediately solve their problems. Tell them all the clichés for why bad things happen or why they're wrong. Argue your point of view. In my Season of Doubt, it wasn't an argument that helped, it wasn't a new strategy, it was something else entirely. How often do we try to fix other people when what they really need is to be heard? I'm guilty of it, I know. Our knee-jerk reaction when someone shows us their struggle is to offer any insight we can. That's not a bad thing, necessarily, but it needs to be near the end of a very crucial series of events.
Follow Up
