I'll go with you

This morning in church, I sat behind an elderly couple.  I don't know these individuals, but I could tell that they had loved each other for a very long time.  He was a bit frail and judging from what he told someone during the time in the service that we greet one another, had experienced a health setback recently.  I watched as she lovingly looked at him and put her hand on his very gently.  When it came to the time in the service where people are encouraged to go to the altar and pray for their needs or offer thanks and praises to God, she leaned over and said, "If you want to go forward and pray, I'll go with you."  I don't think it was so much about just being there with him, but rather about the fact that he needed assistance to get to the altar.  Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought about Dan and how I wished that we could have been that couple in several years. Then I started thinking about what she had said.  "If you want to go forward and pray, I'll go with you."

It's easy to say, "I'm praying for you."  It makes you feel better, because you've done something at least.  You can feel good about "helping" but you haven't had to inconvenience yourself or get your hands dirty.  Don't get me wrong.  Prayer is incredibly powerful, but put action with it and it's a winning combination.  I wonder how many of the people who said that to me during my darkest days really did it.  I wonder if they understand that I needed more than prayer.  I needed someone to recognize that being in church alone was incredibly hard and sit with me.  I needed someone to realize that there were things that I couldn't do on my own and offer to help.  I needed someone to want to help me to the cross when it seemed so far away.
Don't be satisfied with just praying for someone.  Do what you can to take them to the altar....whatever that means.  You never know.  Those steps of helping them to the altar may be the first in a long journey together.