Sometimes, all we need to enable us to go through a difficult situation is for someone to hold our hand or place a hand on our shoulder in solidarity.
One day, a young church member noticed I was shaken when some piece of news was broken to me. He came to me and whispered, “No shaken!” That two-letter phrase encouraged me in no small measure.
In time of trouble, our immediate need is someone close by to lend a helping hand—like the Good Samaritan. Neglect your neighbour and you could be in danger when trouble strikes.
“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour: if either of them falls, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10).
The captain of the Syrian army, Naaman, had leprosy. It was a maid in his home who revealed that a prophet in Israel could heal him.
When the prophet asked him to go and dip himself seven times in the Jordan and be healed, Naaman felt insulted and belittled. His bad temper and ego almost deprived him of healing but for the timely advice of his servants.
Thus, Naaman needed the maid and the servants to obtain his healing.
One day I was driving on a rough road towards the city when my car broke down near a village. Despite having a car full of fuel and sufficient cash to pay for the services of a mechanic, I was stranded.
Someone had to dash to the mechanic’s farm to bring him. I paid him for his services, yet it was not the money but the mechanic who sorted me out.
King Lion caught Mouse in his huge paws and scolded, “What are you doing nibbling my nose?” Mouse pleaded for leniency, saying, “Someday I can save your life.”
“How can a tiny thing like you save me?” Lion laughed off Mouse’s prediction. But when Lion got caught in a trap made of strong ropes, it took tiny Mouse to chew off the ropes to free the jungle king.
Pride, arrogance, and the false sense of self-sufficiency can blind us to the truth that everybody needs somebody one time or the other.
When nurses and laboratory technicians went on strike, Dr. Siaw realised that he was helpless without them. Trying to draw a patient’s blood, he noticed how impoverished he was in his medical profession without those assistants.
Every Adam needs an Eve, hence God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (2:18). Recently, a lady friend sent me this text: “Pray for me, that God would help me to be found and married. It’s not easy doing things alone.”
Loneliness and boredom are among mankind’s worst social enemies. You think you don’t need anybody but wait until you are in need—then you will agree with the Akan proverb that says, “Wonsomu, wonsomu ene nnipa” which means, “Everybody needs somebody.”
The reason live charcoals burn brightly is that they stay together. Put each coal on its own and it dies out. That is the whole idea about Christian fellowship. We are social beings who need each other.
Therefore, says Hebrews 10:25, “Let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”
A man who could not drive but who had no respect for his driver was given a raw deal one day when the driver abandoned him near a thick forest. No driver should do this, of course. But if you are advising the mouse, also advice the cat.
It is precisely because everybody needs somebody that is why everybody must respect everybody.
Cain’s question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9) was wrong, insensitive, and wicked. We are, in fact, our brother’s keeper.
“I’m going to the market to buy foodstuffs,” we say casually. The day we get to the market and find nobody there, we would know how much we need the market women who toil to bring the food to the market for us to buy.
Everybody needs somebody because we are vulnerable beings; no matter how self-sufficient we think we are, we are as needy as anybody else.
The church at Laodicea used to think like this: “We are rich, we have acquired wealth, we need nothing.” But Jesus told them, “You don’t realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).
We are all like that unless we put our trust in God who alone can help us—even if through people.