Help!

"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you”—John 14:15-17.

When I was running the Chicago Marathon, there came a point and time that I didn’t know how I was going to go on. It was around mile 17 or so. My mind was speaking to my body about the absurdity of the act that I was doing and my body was beginning to agree with my mind. But, my will was at war with both my mind and my body, telling me or better yet, demanding that I finish the race, no matter what my body or my mind said. As this battle was going on in my spirit, I kept both feet shuffling along. By this time, I am not sure that I can call it “running” because running seems to mean moving at a speed greater than that of walking. However, the act that I was doing was greater than walking, but seemingly less than running. Therefore, I will label it as, shuffling. As I was shuffling along with around 10 miles to go and wrestling within myself, a dear friend came up next to me. Now, my friend and I were trying to find one another during the race, but were unable to. It was not until mile 17 when my friend managed to catch me, and it was just in time. My thoughts had focused on quitting, but when my friend arrived, my spirit was revived. I could converse freely with someone that was running the race with me. I was not alone in my thoughts, I was able to talk (as much as you can talk during a marathon), with my friend about the pain that I was feeling. There was empathy, but my friend would not let me quit. Indeed, when my friend appeared, I was immediately revived and wanted to continue running until the end. And if it wasn’t for my friend, I am not altogether sure I would have finished the race.

The same is true with us spiritually. Each of us tries to run the race of faith by ourselves, but it is during the dark moments when all hope seems lost that God’s Holy Spirit reveals Himself. He is the “Helper” (John 14:16), who helps us in our time of weakness, especially during prayer (Romans 8:26). My friend became a tangible expression of God’s Holy Spirit when we want to quit. He won’t let us; He cares about us too much to let us quit. He knows how much longer we have to go and He gives us the grace and power necessary to journey on until the end. We all need “help” every once in a while. Amen.