Absurdity!

Imagine for a moment a man drowning in a river. Unable to save himself, he is desperate for help.  A man then appears. He is along the shore, keeping pace with the river, fully committed to rescuing the drowning man. He has a plan. 

 

A man drowning does not care how the one on the shore got there. He is thankful for that person and is concerned with that person helping him! It would be utterly absurd for the man in the water either to be angry with the man on the shore, precisely because he is on the shore, or to reject his help because that man can’t possibly sympathize unless he is drowning in the water also.

 

There is a prevalent mindset in people, a way of thinking, that is not only harmful but deceitful. It reasons that since I’m in a worse place than you, you can’t help me; since you’re in a better place than I am, you can’t understand me. 

 

HARMFUL 

This is harmful in that I allow myself never to be challenged or corrected. Rather, I surround myself with people who make me feel comfortable in a place I shouldn't be, content with attitudes I shouldn't have, and complacent with actions I shouldn't do. Instead of holding each other up by showing love and speaking truth, we pull each other down by complaining and grumbling about life and people. 

 

DECIETFUL

This mindset is deceitful in that I begin to believe the lie that God’s Word and wisdom do not bring life, at least not to me. I forget, or despair at the thought, that it’s through the continual obedient and gradual application of God’s Word in my life that change does occur and will last. I begin to doubt God and to trust in men and/or women who are themselves "drowning" as I am and unable to save themselves. Proverbs 8:22-31 encourages us by reminding us that the wisdom of God - by which He created the world and all that is in it - this very same wisdom is available to us for our daily lives. 

But the chapter also ends by warning us: “Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.” (Read Proverbs 8:32-36 also).

 

WISE IN WAYS WE ARE NOT

None of us likes being told that what we are doing is wrong, especially by someone who seems to have it all together. But the objective of having godly friends who can give godly counsel is not to condemn, but to correct when necessary, and to encourage always. Those who are living testimonies to us of God’s daily grace are not people who are perfect, but people who are imperfect as we are. 

 

The reality is that there is no season in life where we are not needing to grow and mature in one way or another. There is no season in life where struggles are absent in all their varying degrees and forms. It is in the counsel and wisdom of friends who are strong, experienced, wise and mature in ways that we are not, that we will find the uncomfortable, yet necessary counsel for moving forward and growing out of our foolishness up into the fulness of Christ.  

 

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:15 -16).