Don't Look BackUzorak

Who are your friends? Who are the people running alongside you, exhorting you to keep moving forward, to stay on mission, and helping you not look back when looking back is all you want to do? Who is it that reminds you what we all need to hear from time to time: “Remember Lot’s wife!” Wouldn’t it be great for us all to start saying that to one another every time we begin to see each other about to look back, because we know that what often follows looking back is getting stuck—and getting stuck keeps us from moving on with all the plans and purpose God has for us, doesn’t it? Every one of us needs life-giving friends who will caution us when we start to drift away from God, even when we don’t mean to. We need friends who will speak the truth, even when it’s difficult for us to hear. We need true friends who will love us unconditionally and genuinely want the best for us, who will inspire us and make us better in every way. We need friends who will encourage us like the writer of Hebrews said: “And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.”

We need friends who know how to pray and pray with us, who will help us get into the presence of Jesus when we can’t figure out how to get there on our own. There’s a story in Mark’s gospel that makes this so clear. Jesus was speaking in a house full of people, and there was a man outside who was paralyzed and needed to be healed. Because the crowd made it impossible for his four friends to carry him through the front door, they hoisted him up onto the roof, made a hole, and lowered him down into the presence of Jesus. Can you imagine?

“They [the friends] came to him [Jesus] bringing a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after digging through it, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.... I tell you: get up, take your mat, and go home. Immediately he got up, took the mat, and went out in front of everyone. As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Can you picture all this happening? The man’s friends had to be strong. They had to be determined. They had to be innovative. When I read this story, I can’t help but think of the times in my life when I must have felt like dead weight to my friends. Times when I was stuck and couldn’t figure out the way forward on my own. Times when I needed them to carry me. Times when I needed them to pray because I wasn’t sure what else to pray.

It would have been the times when I needed godly and faithful friends to tell me what to do because I wasn’t sure what next step to take. From my experience, we all need friends who know how to tap into the strength of Jesus and help us. People who are strong enough spiritually to lift us up and carry us when we can’t move. People who can get us into the presence of Jesus.

What’s more, I can’t help but notice what Jesus said when he healed the man: “Seeing their faith…Jesus told the paralytic…get up, take up your mat, and go home.” Jesus saw the faith of the man’s friends. Sometimes, we need the faith of our friends to help move us forward in life; to get from the place where we’re stuck to where God wants us to go.