Sometimes there is nothing to do for anyone. I hate that. I can’t tell you how much I want to make things better by doing something for people, and how little, it turns out, I want to just be with them. Because if I have to be with them – well, then if someone is drunk and crying, and she just wants another person to be with her in her unhappiness, then I have to just sit there. Or if she’s upset and worried about her kids, and she just wants another person to be with her in her anxiety, then I have to stand there and let her see how useless I am. I’m scared about not doing the right thing, and I have to let my own weakness and neediness show.
The most important word in the Bible is the most important word in our lives: with. And it is a word made flesh. God lives with us, just as Jesus lives with the Father, and we with one another, and the Holy Spirit, the very breath of life, lives with us all.
This message is excerpted from “With you” by Sara Miles in the May 2015 Gather magazine.
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