Two Strands > One
Life can be a beatdown. I find that the older I get and the more heartbreak I endure, the more eagerly I can say “Come, Lord Jesus”.
Our family dog died on Friday and it was unexpected, unexplained, and unbelievably painful.
The loss was heaped onto previous loss, too close in proximity to ignore. In addition, my prayer list was laden with the heartache of others; cancer diagnoses, mental health issues, wayward children, troubled marriages, not to mention a country in complete upheaval.
I felt weary of living that day… much like “The Teacher” in Ecclesiastes. When I’ve absorbed more of life’s blows than what seems tolerable, I can find myself agreeing with his sentiment that “the dead are happier than the living”.
Solomon writes from a place of emotional exhaustion. He has found much of life to be meaningless. What he thought would yield happiness has left him empty. Wisdom, pleasure, success, work, riches, long life; all described as vanity, and a “chasing after the wind”.
Yet even in his despondency, Solomon is able to identify a salve to ease his pain.Companionship. Community. Verses 9-12 of chapter 4 read, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work.
If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken”.
Solomon’s wisdom indicates that we will all fall down. We all get cold and we will all, at times, find ourselves overpowered. In each of these eventualities, companionship is the answer.
Community is the key to weathering life’s challenges because the knowledge that we don’t face hardship alone is a game-changer. We have a God who has promised never to leave us or forsake us, and in that sense are never alone. But He created us with a hard-wired need for human companionship. We are here to carry one another’s burdens.
The prophet Elijah experienced both the meaninglessness of life and the salve of companionship, just as Solomon described. Read I Kings 19 in its entirety. The chapter details Elijah’s state of mind immediately after defeating the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel.
The spiritual showdown puts a price on Elijah’s head and he flees the wrath of Jezebel. While on the run, he asks the Lord to take his life. He’s just done. He laments that he is tired, afraid, and utterly disappointed by the godlessness of his people.
What’s worse is that he feels alone, believing he is the only one left in Israel who is not an idolator. The Lord restores his spirit first with food. Maybe he was a tad “hangry”??? But then He gives Elijah the real nourishment of community and companionship.
He assures the prophet that he is not alone and that there are 7000 others who have not bowed the knee to Baal. And then God takes it a step further by giving him a companion, Elisha. When Elijah was alone in the cave, in total despair, he still had God. He was never truly alone.
But he, like us, was created for human connection and that was the need God met through community. At the end of this week’s sermon, the question was posed, “What is the worthiest of pursuits?”
The Teacher gives us many examples of unworthy (meaningless) pursuits and only one that proves worthy…companionship. I’m thankful God gave us this remedy for the times we fall, grow cold, and feel overpowered because as long as we live in a broken world, brokenness is our reality. Not our constant reality, thankfully, but a force to be reckoned with nonetheless.
On Friday it was my community who provided the salve I needed. Friends who remembered our dog fondly and cried with me. Friends who understood the pain of a pet dying. Friends who went out of their way to demonstrate compassion. Two are better than one. And three is still better, and four, and so on. We are well advised to nurture and lean on the community God has given us. It exists for a purpose and is the very opposite of meaningless.
~ Melissa Gibbs