Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! ~Ecclesiastes 4:9-10~
It is Saturday afternoon and I have just returned from running a couple errands. When I stepped into my apartment building there was a young lady trying to wrestle a two-wheel cart with some furniture up the stairs. She was halfway up the first flight of four, breathing heavy and taking a break. She smiled and suggested that I try to squeeze by. I told her I would help (there was no room to get by even if I did not want to help) and grabbed the edge of the cart and lifted as she pulled. In short order we had her cart to the floor she needed and I turned to go my way. She called after me – “You did not need to help. I could have gotten it myself.”
Why did she feel the need to reject the help after she received it? Why do we as a society extol self-sufficiency above community? Why can we not offer simple help without a person getting defensive? God said it is not good for man to be alone. While He said in that in preparation for the deliverance of Eve to Adam, it is true just in general. We are created to be social creatures. We are created to help one another. Wouldn’t the world be much more civil if we acted the way we are created to be? I suggest we all try it and find out.
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” ~ Hebrews 10:24–25~