Lifting Each Other Up

Travis Harrison

If you know me, you know that I love church camp. In fact, that’s where I met Jennifer back in the late 1990s, early 2000s at Taylor Christian Camp. Also, if you know me, you know I struggle with acting my age at times. It’s true – I am a big kid at times. Which leads me to this past summer at church camp. If you have ever been to camp you know that our young people love a good game of 4 square. It’s a big deal!  There’s always a long line, and you stand in this line for what seems like an hour to get into the game, just to be embarrassed by a 7-year-old. It’s awful, it’s terrible, and what’s worse you go to the back of the line just to do it all over again.  I learned a valuable lesson the hard way on that Monday night. Just because you’re still 20 years old in your mind, does not mean your body is! What could go wrong though? After all, I wasn’t the only person “of age”, notice I didn’t say old, out there playing. Jennifer, Josh, Cassie, Stephen and even Hiram were playing. The fun wouldn’t last long though. As I was chasing a ball out of bounds, my foot hit the grass, I slipped, my knee buckled, and I knew something was wrong.  The pain that shot through my leg was intense. Like any guy would, I tried to walk it off till it felt better, pretending like it was ok. I remember hearing Hiram ask, “Bro, you ok?” I tried to take another step, and I laid down on the ground. “Nope, I’m not ok guys, I think I just tore something in my knee.” Thankfully Josh and Stephen were there to help me off the ground. With one guy under each arm, they helped basically carry me into the lodge to see nurse Dawn and Clint Raymer. Clint was quick to diagnose that I had torn the meniscus in my knee. Dawn helped wrap my knee up, gave me an ice pack and medicine to ease the pain. She also let me know that I may or may not need to leave the 4 square games to the younger people. 

I had no plans to get hurt that day. It never crossed my mind that by playing a fun game I would change the course of my week. You can imagine the thoughts that raced through my mind; all the worst-case scenarios that I played out in my head. What was I going to do?  Our lives can be like this sometimes. We are going about our business, enjoying life. Everything is going great, not a care in the world. Then trouble comes, or disaster strikes, and the pain we feel is more than we can stand, and we can find ourselves on the ground. Sometimes physically, other times mentally, emotionally, spiritually and we can’t get ourselves up without help. What everyone did for me after my “incident” was care and have concern, which is exactly what God wants us to do as members of His family. We have an awesome family here at Cumberland Trace. I have personally experienced the literal and physical “lifting up” by my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I know many of you have also. God tells us over and over that this is exactly how he expects His people to be – but not just physically.  We are to come alongside one another and spiritually hold each other up.

 “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2. “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” James 5:16.”  Our church family is a blessing, and our brothers and sisters can help us carry those heavy burdens in our lives and help keep on us track.  It starts by forming those deep, meaningful relationships and being able to speak openly about our struggles with sin as well as the physical and worldly issues we all face.  “But you don’t know or understand the things I’ve been through” …maybe not.  The circumstances might be different, but the results can be the same. We can lean on each other when those unexpected times in our lives come; we don’t have to do it alone. 

Look around you. Would you notice if one of your brothers or sisters wasn’t here? Have you checked on someone you haven’t seen recently? We’ve all heard it said that if you start to miss church, one day you won’t miss church.  We need to be in each other’s lives so much so that missing one service prompts us to check on our brother or sister. We miss them when they’re not here – we should be letting them know!  I know when we’ve been away and received multiple messages asking if we are ok – we feel encouraged by that! Maybe they’re sick? Just visiting family? Vacation? Or maybe they really are struggling with sin or fighting something that keeps them from wanting to be at church. “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” James 5: 19-20. We are commanded to know each other well enough that we can answer these questions. If they’re sick, is there something you can do? Can you bring them something? If they’re struggling, are you praying for them? Can you spare a moment to listen to them? Are you willing to help lift that heavy load they’re carrying? We should be the crutch that our brothers and sisters lean on when they’re physically, mentally, spiritually exhausted and are too weak to stand alone. God through Paul tells us exactly how He wants us to interact in His family. “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” I Thessalonians 5:11-14.  We should treat our church family like the group of sheep in Matthew 18 – and we should all be the shepherd who goes after the one who’s gone astray. If we aren’t working on building these relationships, how will we even know if we’ve lost one? 

There were several things I could’ve done.  I could have just laid around the cabin and felt sorry for myself. I could have gone home, pouted – which I may have done a little due to the injured pride…I could have let disappointment, discouragement, or bitterness ruin my week. My Christian family didn’t let that happen. I’m glad that I stayed the whole week, even if I couldn’t walk for a couple days. Like I said I love church camp. It’s the most fun, joy filled, uplifting, and physically exhausting week ever, but I love it.  Part of what makes it so great is I get to spend a whole week with my family. My wife and kids, and my Christian family. Learning about God, growing closer to Him and growing closer to each other. I needed that reminder that week, that our Christian family can be there for us through all the things life is going to throw at us.  My brothers and sisters literally came alongside me and helped pick me up in more ways than one. I love my church family, and I hope you all do too. My hope for this new year in 2025, is we can all find opportunities to lift one another up. Get to know your Christian family better, in doing so, growing closer to each other so that we can share and rejoice in each other’s good times and can have confidence to lean on each other through the bad times.