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Grab your Bible or open your free YouVersion app and look up Mark 2. In the first 12 verses of Mark 2, we read the story of this paralyzed man who is healed by Jesus. This healing caused problems with some “religious” folks in the room. You see, Jesus first forgave the man’s sins and then, when he heard their snide comments and felt their doubts, he calls them out and tells the man to get up and walk.

BOOM! Jesus all the time was doing crazy good things that grabbed folks attention. In fact, verse 12 ends this story by saying that the crowd who witnessed all this were astounded and praised God telling how they had never seen anything like that before.

I. Love. Me. Some. God. I love reading of the goodness of God. I love reading stories like this where you wish you could have seen the folks’ faces. Imagine being there. Imagine hearing and seeing all this. You see, we know about Jesus. We’ve had access to read all about him. Some of these folks may have heard a ‘lil something but hadn’t seen him in action just yet. Wow. Just. Wow.

Now…my favorite part about this story isn’t actually about Jesus humbling those “religious” folks. My favorite part isn’t about the crowd’s reaction. In fact, my personal favorite part of this story isn’t even about homeboy getting his sins forgiven or being told to get up and then him actually getting up, rolling his mat and walking away. Nope. My favorite part is actually often overlooked. My favorite part of this story is found in verses 3-5 of Mark 2: the friends. Go back and read that part again. You see, dude man’s friends (at least 4 of them) brought him to Jesus. Dude man’s friends saw how packed the place was, so these guys lifted him to the roof…removed part of the roof…rigged up a way to lower him down. And, in verse 5 we see that it was his friends’ faith that had Jesus forgiving this guy’s sins. Come on now!

Ready for a tough question?

How tight is your circle? You can have a ton of folks in your life who talk good talk… but are they willing to carry you to Jesus? Would they put you on the roof, open a hole, rig a way to lower you? Do you surround yourself with people whose faith can help heal you?

Ready for an even tougher question?

Are you that friend? You have friends and family who aren’t living in Christ yet. Are you taking them to Him? Praying for them? Inviting them? Loving? Be that friend.

Rev. J. Cameron Bailey is pastor of Kenbridge Christian Church. He can be reached at jamescameronbailey@gmail.com.