helping a Friend

[Chrysostom]

Many who ask for good things grow impatient when the answer delays, but observe Peter's reverence in the Gospel. His own mother-in-law lay sick with a fever, yet he did not draw the Lord into his house at once. He waited until the teaching was finished and all the others were healed. From the beginning he was instructed to prefer the things of all others to his own. You have prayed for your friend's employment and for your puppet skits. These are requests for the good of many. But let the timing belong to God. Do not say "let it happen soon" as though He were slow. The centurion who sought healing for his servant did not rush up the mountain to interrupt the Lord's teaching. He waited until Jesus entered Capernaum. Fervent faith shows itself in patience, not in remissness, but in not interrupting the divine order.

You desire a singing coach position for a minister's wife with a wonderful voice, one who would not trade her gift for fame. This is a modest and proper desire. An honest employment using God-given talents is a blameless thing. Yet be careful how you reckon righteousness. Even those who are blameless in a particular conduct, when compared with the righteousness of God, are sinners. Do not think that securing this job or publishing those puppets will establish anyone's standing. If the Lord grants these things, it is not because the recipients are righteous above others, but because He does good to us. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

You praise your friend's character in your prayer. This is well, but take heed. If you speak openly of another's virtue, you may do them harm, for to have one's merit spoken of can destroy it through pride. Be silent that she may not cease to be better. If she herself is conscious of her own gifts without boasting, she will add much to her reward. The Pharisee said "I am not as this publican," and destroyed all his merit. Let her look only to the righteousness which is from God.

Since you wait upon the Lord's answer, do not be altered as soon as you rise from prayer, as so many are. When you go home, do not plunge straight into anxious business. Take the psalms into your hands. Learn to sing psalms, and you shall see the delightfulness of the employment. They who sing psalms are filled with the Holy Spirit, as they who sing satanic songs are filled with an unclean spirit. This practice will guard your friend's mind during her illness and recovery, and it will guard yours while you wait for the publishing of your work. Give attendance to reading the divine writings, to exhortation, and to teaching. If you fall into despondency over these delays, hear the psalmist saying, "Why art thou so sorrowful, O my soul, and why dost thou so disturb me? Trust in God."

When your friend regains her health, and when your puppet skits are ready, both will be employed not for fame, but for the benefit of many. This is a good desire, for the Lord died and rose again that He might make us righteous unto good works. But between the petition and the answer, be occupied with spiritual drink that does not make the tongue stammer but makes it articulate in praise. Call your friend and your household to join you in putting together what you have heard from Scripture, and then, not before, engage in the business of life.

 

[Silas]

When you bring a request like this before the Lord, the very act of interceding for your friend already shows a heart that is alive to the needs of others. That desire to see her singing used, not for fame but to bless others and provide for her, is a gift in itself. And your own longing to build something through those puppet skits, to create work that would make many people happy, that too is a good seed planted in prayer.

What strikes me is how both of these situations touch on the mystery of suffering and provision. Your friend has been laid low by injuries, surgeries, and health issues. She has lost so much of what we consider normal and necessary. It is not unlike those seasons when everything is stripped back until all that seems left is raw existence. The man Job knew that kind of reduction. He lost his possessions, his health, and even the comfort of friends who truly understood. Yet even when he sat in ashes, longing for death, he did not curse God. And his story was never about a simple answer to the question "Why?" It was about something deeper.

Your friend may not have answers for why she has walked through this pain. And you, standing beside her, may not have them either. But what we do know is that God has not forsaken her. He has drawn near. Job cried out for someone to stand between him and God, a mediator who could touch them both. That cry finds its full answer in Jesus Christ alone. He is the One who bridges every gap, who carries our griefs, and who is not silent in the face of our suffering. He hears your prayer for your friend, and He knows exactly what she needs.

So as you pray for her to become a singing coach, for doors to open so she can work from home or welcome students to her door, you are asking the One who sees the bigger story. He may provide just that. Or He may provide in a way you have not imagined. Either way, trust that He is working. The same God who finally spoke to Job and restored more than he lost is the same God who walks with your friend now. And His timing is not always our "soon," but it is always right.

For your own creative work, the same truth holds. The desire to bring voice actors into your puppet skits, to give meaningful work to people you care about, is a reflection of wanting to build something good in this broken world. But even there, we learn from Job’s friends that human efforts to explain or manufacture outcomes often miss the heart of God. Do not be anxious about the speed. Bring the project before the Lord, work at it with faithfulness, and leave the publishing and the timing in His hands. He is the one who prospers the work of our hands when it is surrendered to Him.

Remember that the patience we see in Job was not a passive, unfeeling endurance; it was an active clinging to God even when everything else fell apart. So you keep praying for that friend. Keep building those skits. And rest in the fact that Jesus is the mediator who holds both of you. He has answered the deepest cry of the human heart, and He will meet every basic need according to His riches in glory. In all of it, let His word be your nourishment, more than any temporary success. He is working it out.