Alongside: A Practical Guide for Loving Your Neighbor in their Time of Trial (Morgan James Faith) - Tapa dura

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Sarah Beckman is a speaker, writer and blogger with a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin. Founder of Salt and Clay Ministries, her passion for loving her neighbor has fueled her life and ministry for over 10 years. She’s been blogging for over 7 years at sarahbeckman.org and is a regular contributor for dynamiccommunicators.com. Her own health trials coupled with her experience walking alongside countless people facing trial, including three with terminal illness, provide her authentic, compelling viewpoint for this book.

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Although we are called to love all our neighbors, all the time, there’s a unique opportunity to love our neighbor when they are experiencing a time of trial in their life. Vulnerability brings with it an open door – one that often remains closed in the normal busyness of our lives today.

God intends for us to push it open, and step boldly in to a person’s life when they need it the most.

We are meant to be part of the physical, human illustration of God’s power.

We are meant to help, heal, minister to and love someone for His sake.

And in the midst of brokenness, there’s no better time to love our neighbor than the present.

Offer Specific Help

Acts 20:35 says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”?

After living through bed rest for 11 weeks and 5 surgeries—all while living with three children under the age of 8—I coined a new phrase: “It is harder to receive than to give.”

If you’ve been on the receiving end of kindness in the face of hardship or tragedy, I think you will agree with what this chapter covers. If you haven’t, it’s hard to appreciate the feeling, but please take the following to heart.

When it comes to helping others, you need to know three vital pieces of information:

1. People don’t like to be in need of help.

2. A generic offer of “let me know what I can do” is supremely unhelpful.

3. Specific offers of help allow you to combat both of these problems.

Hear me when I say the person you are trying to help will be challenged by the mere notion of accepting help. As those who want to love amidst the hardest circumstances of life, we must counteract this feeling at all costs. Our neighbor’s welfare depends on it.