As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. Proverbs 27:17 NLT
Everyone experiences hurt, challenges, insecurity, and fear – all the negative emotions. The most significant issue when we experience them, perhaps especially even more when we are generally “the leader,” the strong one in the family or the organization, is the sense of isolation. Painful emotions have a way of convincing us that we are unique in our suffering, and they hold us in a small defensive prison.
But when we allow someone else’s story to shine a light into that prison, we quickly discover we have partners. We have companions in our darkness. When our experiences attempt to isolate us, the stories of others – their honesty, survival, and healing – become bridges back to hope and life. We are not meant to live, hurt, or heal in solitude. We need to connect with other followers of Jesus who will share His story and theirs with us. We receive strength as we connect. Their stories and survival and thriving prove that we, too, can endure.
God typically uses community and shared stories to heal our broken hearts and minds. We definitely can use and are to use our stories for helping others, but it’s a two-way street. None of us is so strong and has it together so much that we don’t need the stories of others to help us too.
The biblical record shares the high and low moments of people who are heroes of the faith to us. All of us have identified with people who could never have imagined that several thousand years later the honest telling of their truth would still be lifting people. And that’s wonderful.
But nothing will ever replace another living human being. As Proverbs says, one can sharpen another. When we connect with someone who reaches out to us and trusts us with their story, we recognize we are not alone. We are understood, and we have positive proof that someone else made it through the situation, the doubts, and the struggles we have. Their story connects us with a hopeful cycle of mutual healing. We can learn ways to deal with our challenges. Perhaps most important of all, when we listen to how God used someone else’s situation for good, we can grow in trust and courage to trust Him with our story as well. Don’t convince yourself that you need to go it alone. Your story helps others, yes. But sometimes you need theirs too.
- God, when life is out of my control, it’s easy to close my heart. Give me the courage to open up and let the stories of the journeys of others give me love and direction.