Song: ”Divine Protection” by SoulLift Sessions

Good morning, and welcome to Starting Our Day Together, a few minutes to get the day started in the right direction.

Let me ask you a question this morning.

Who helped keep you on the road when you could have gone off the rails?

Maybe a name came to mind right away.

Maybe you thought of somebody you haven’t talked to in years.

Or maybe you thought of somebody who, at the time, you wished would mind their own business.

And now, looking back, you’re glad they didn’t.

The conversation that got me thinking

Four guys I served with in the military and I get together once a month on Zoom.

We do it to stay in touch and check on each other.

And during yesterday’s call, we got to talking about the different roles we play in our friendship.

One of us is the teacher.

One of us provides the humor.

Humor plays an important role.

Sometimes you need somebody who can make you laugh long enough to get you out of your own head.

We also realized that some of us knew each other in seasons the others missed.

One brother might remember a version of me that another guy never met.

And we started laughing about one particular period in the military.

We wondered, “how different our lives could have been, if we had switched out one of those two guys and put one of the rest of us there, that whole situation might have gone differently.”

I’ll let you decide whether it would have gone better or worse.

But there was something underneath the laughter.

Who was beside you mattered.

The person who was there knew how to get through to you in that moment.

Maybe all he did was look at you and say, “Man, you sure you want to do that?”

And sometimes that little bit of hesitation is enough.

It gives you a second to think before you do something you’ll spend a whole lot longer trying to undo.

Who was there at that bend in the road?

Think about a guardrail on a road.

You can drive past one a hundred times and barely notice it.

But come around that curve a little too fast, and suddenly you understand why somebody put it there.

People can be like that.

The person who helped you in elementary school might have been the first adult outside your family who saw something in you.

In high school, it might have been a friend who said, “Come on, let’s get out of here,” and made it easier for you to walk away.

Then you go to college, join the military, get married, or start raising a family, and you find that a different stretch of road calls for a different kind of help.

Sometimes the guardrail is a word of correction.

Sometimes it’s encouragement.

And sometimes it’s somebody who knows you well enough to hear you say, “I’m fine,” and asks you one more question.

Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” That’s the ESV.

I like that because it goes both ways.

On one call, I might be the one who has something to offer.

On the next call, I might be the one who needs to listen.

And if I’ve decided my role is always to be the teacher, I can miss what my friends are trying to teach me.

I also think about that phrase from Esther, “for such a time as this.”

Mordecai was asking Esther to consider whether the position she held gave her an opportunity to help her people at a critical moment.

That question makes me think about timing in our own lives.

When I look back, I can thank God that certain people were close enough to speak up at the very moment I was willing to hear them.

And it makes me wonder whose life I’m close enough to speak into today.

Some people were there for a season

As you look back, you may remember somebody who really helped you, and you haven’t spoken in twenty years.

Maybe one of you moved.

Maybe your lives went in different directions.

You can still be thankful for what that person gave you.

There might be a teacher who has no idea you still remember what she said.

There might be somebody you served with who thought he was just doing what friends do.

And here you are, years later, realizing how much it mattered that he was there.

If someone comes to mind today and you can reach them, tell them what you remember.

Say, “You may have forgotten this, but I haven’t.

When you said that to me, it made me stop and think.

And I want you to know it helped.”

And then consider somebody in your life right now.

Maybe your role today is as simple as making a phone call, asking a good question, or giving someone a chance to talk through a decision before they make it.

Closing prayer

Lord, thank You for the people You’ve used to keep us grounded.

Thank You for the ones who made us laugh, the ones who told us the truth, and the ones who stayed close enough to ask how we were really doing.

Give us the humility to listen when someone who loves us speaks up.

And when it’s our turn to show up for somebody else, give us the wisdom to know what they need and the courage to offer it.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

This has been Starting Our Day Together.

As you go about your day, think of one person who helped you stay on the road.

If you can, give them a call.

They may have been waiting years to hear the story from your side.