I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

 
One of my favorite television programs as a kid is The Wonder Years, a show about an eleven-year old boy (played by Fred Savage) muddling through the exciting yet unchartered waters of puberty. Every week I would watch as Kevin Arnold stumbled through Junior High School with his friend Paul Pfeiffer and fawned over his crush and next- door neighbor Winnie Cooper. The show was about a nuclear family trying to survive the tumultuous decade of free love, the sexual revolution and new advancements both in space and in the world. Each week, viewers listened as Joe cocker crooned the show’s theme, the cover of the Beatles song “I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends.”  There was comfort in knowing that Kevin had his faithful friend Paul, his love Winnie and his family to help him through life’s trials. 
 
It’s like this in our spiritual lives, too. God has placed us with brothers and sisters in Christ who are there to support, encourage and keep us accountable so that we can grow in our walks. The intention is that no matter how difficult the trials we are going through right now, we do not have to walk alone. Sometimes more mature Christians are there and we follow in our footsteps, placing ourselves in each imprint so we don’t lose our way. Other times we need to lead the less mature Christian so that they don’t stray and know which way to go, too.
 
But so often we try to do the Christian life alone. We choose a random path, walking and getting lost with no real direction or end goal in sight. It is important we have others in our lives who are gifted differently than us so that as Proverbs 27:17 dictates “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
 
Do you have people in your life who lead you and that you lead in return? Who might God placed in your life to help you through life’s journey?

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