Maybe you’ve been there . . . life imploded, struggling emotionally and physically. You prayed and searched Scripture. Alone and in despair, you swallowed your pride and reached out to friends and even acquaintances.

You didn’t expect any of them to fix everything, of course. But you were barely hanging in there and were desparate for support and understanding.

But the responses you received were variations of “That’s horrible! I’ll be praying for you” before they moved on. Perhaps you were even told, as I was several months ago by an acquaintance and fellow church member, “I’ve been watching from afar”.

Now, let me stress that I know full well the importance and extreme power of prayer and that I am always extremely thankful for the prayers of other people.

However, “I’ll pray for you” seems to have become the knee-jerk reaction of people — devout Christians and otherwise — to the tragedies and pain of others. According to my albeit informal research into the topic, experts share that an overwhelming number of Americans who have dealt with a crisis express that when they reached out to others, the response was little more than automatically-offered platitudes.

To put it bluntly, we have by and large become a culture of people who watch their friends . . . their fellow churchgoers . . . their neighbors . . . struggle from afar without extending a loving, helping hand.

We hide behind the excuse of “busy-ness”. But are we so busy following other people’s lives via social media and reality tv and YouTube videos that we don’t have 15 minutes or even an hour somewhere within a week to reach out to someone who is struggling?

To make a phone call checking up on someone . . . to have him or her over for dinner or take them out for a cup of tea or coffee . . .  to send an encouraging card in the mail . . . to perhaps even offer of a bit of help in some tangible form . . .

It’s time for each one of us to emulate the early Christians . . . to put our faith into action and walk beside and lift up our fellow man.

To stop watching from afar.