Staying with those who struggle

I had some opportunities to learn some humility on this trip to Glacier. I had two days where I ended up with heat exhaustion. It really sucks. The first day I talked with the group, after I caught up with them, about the importance of staying together. I felt bad about it because I felt like I was giving a lecture, and I'm sure that some of it came from being hurt, but it had to be said.

In our world today there is a "survival of the fittest" mentality, a desire to be first, the strongest, the best. What happens when the focus is on this is that when someone starts to struggle, they get left behind. When things start getting hard, the strong charge ahead and the weak are left behind to struggle by themselves. However, that is the time when the strong people are needed most. How many rescue situations start by someone saying "where's so-and-so?" and then finding them somewhere far behind on the trail? Sometimes at that point it is too late, as in the case of a young girl who died on an Outward Bound trip recently. This happens in hiking/backpacking, kayaking, life, and relationship with God.

This is the Glory of God, that Jesus "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:6-8) Even though Jesus was God, He didn't take a survival of the fittest approach to life, charging ahead to the finish line. Instead He became one of us, arrived on earth as the bastard son of a poor, low status family, and spent His time on earth with the people who were struggling. His closest friends were fishermen, tax collectors (these guys were worse than the IRS), prostitutes, lepers, and cripples. God saw the struggling and He came to help them. He didn't try to give them helpful advice or yell at them that they did something stupid, He walked them them and helped them with their burden, eventually taking care of the one burden they could do nothing about.

The strong are not the ones who are first to the finish line or to the top of the mountain first. The strong are those with the strength of character to use their strength to help those who are struggling. How many champions are a total jackass and how do we look at people like the firemen who ran into the World Trade Center on 9/11? Often it isn't that the strong have to carry the struggling, many times just walking with them is enough. I know that as I was struggling on our hike that I was stronger when people were with me than when I was walking on my own. When I had people with me I knew that I was going to be ok.

It's really hard to be the one who is struggling. No one wants to be the complainer and no one wants to be the weakest link. We want to be strong and self sufficient. But the truth is, sometimes we struggle and sometimes we need help. Generally when backpacking I'm the one who is checking up on everyone to make sure everyone is ok and I tend to stay behind with the slower people. It was really hard to be the one who was struggling. I know that I went at least a mile debating with myself whether I really was in trouble or whether I was just a whiner. I finally reached a point where I knew I was in trouble, and then I spoke up. However, maybe if I had the humility to admit I was struggling earlier things might not have gotten as bad. Sometimes asking for help is also a matter of whether anyone is going to care. Many people know they need help, but they don't know if anyone cares enough to help, so they keep struggling along on their own. Or maybe it is a matter of someone strong being around to ask for help. If the strong are not among the weak, there is no one to turn to for help.

The desire to be the strongest and the best permeates everything in our culture, and mostly it is glorified. We hold up the sports champion, the successful CEO, and the celebrity. However, what is the cost of glorifying the strong and ignoring the weak? How would our world be different if we had paid attention to those who are hurting and struggling? How many school shootings averted? How many suicides, run aways, drug addicts, and people locked up in prison would have a different story? How many of those people could have changed the world if someone had offered them the strength to make it through their struggle?

I believe that our world would be transformed if we stopped worrying about who was the best and started taking care of those who are struggling. That's why Jesus came to earth and that's what the Church is supposed to do. We've done a pretty poor job of it, but we're working on it.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 9:10-13


The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
Isaiah 61:1-3