spare tire, spare time.
“A friend is someone who helps you up when you’re down, and if they can’t, they lay down beside you and listen.”
— Winnie the Pooh
I turned to drive up the steep hill of the street that leads to our house, and as I rounded the corner I noticed my friend’s car pulled off to the side with the trunk popped. His stuff was strewn everywhere on the sidewalk, and he had a rather defeated look on his face. His front left tire was totally flat, and it appeared that the tire itself had somehow come completely off of the rim. I was slow to register what had happened (coffeeeeee need coffeeeeee), and after briefly chatting with him through the rolled down window I pulled over and parked in front of his car. He asked if I had anywhere to be, could I help him out for a minute? I agreed, but also felt like I needed to explain my impressive level of car expertise (zero, zilch, nada, never changed a tire in my life). He said, “Honestly, if you could just stand here and talk to me while I do this, that would be hugely helpful.” So with the baby strapped into his carseat and sleeping off the excitement from his toenail removal surgery that morning (true story, I kid you not), I sipped the last of my coffee and stood guard in the road while we began swapping stories about our crazy morning and just catching up on each other’s lives. He laid on the wet pavement and wrestled with his tire, and as we talked he peppered our conversation with step by step instructions on what to do if I were changing my own flat tire. He said that teaching skills like this was actually kind of therapeutic for him. Funny thing, I actually learn best from watching someone else demonstrate.
This was such a small interaction and didn’t cost me anything but about 20 minutes, but by the end of it — it felt like a little Kingdom come.
He, in wisdom, prepared me for the day I would have to step up and be ready, and I simply reminded him that he wasn’t alone. And I’m convinced that this is why Jesus gives us each other, because sometimes we get so deep into our own heads or our own busyness that we forget to look for his hand and to look out for one another.
I was watching The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with our kids the other day, and there was a line I never noticed before that I found to be so chilling. The battle lines had been drawn, the warriors were poised and ready, awaiting the call for action from each leader. Jadis, the White Witch leading the army of evil gazed coldly ahead and callously commanded, “I’m not interested in prisoners. Kill them all.” Whoa.
This sounds to me so much like the enemy we face, and we fall asleep to the fact that we even have one. One of my favorite verses is 1 Peter 5:7, but it wasn’t until I zoomed out and read the next two verses that followed that I really drew an appreciation for them:
“Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” (1 Peter 5:7-9)
What a kindness these verses are. God wants to hear what I worry about, and he wants to keep it. He knows my enemy, gives me all that I need to fight back, and tells me to resist my adversary - not defeat him. I can’t beat a lion, shoot I can’t even beat a cranky toddler at this point (though I’m not sure which one is more vicious), but God can and will. And on top of that, he surrounds me with other fighting friends too and nudges me to remember that there are others who get exactly what I am going through — I am not alone.
Nowhere in those verses does He promise to take the trouble away. In fact, they kind of solidify the fact that trouble is all over the place. But I can get back up again every time knowing that so is He. There’s another glimpse of the battle scene in the movie where Peter, the leader of Aslan’s army for good, looks off to his right-hand man before they blow the horns to begin. He locks eyes for a second and simply asks, “Are you with me?” And the other guy replies, “Until the very end.” This is the friend that we have in Jesus. He is loyal and steadfast, and He will get us through. Until the very end.
