The Man Who Falls Alone

The Preacher of Ecclesiastes was not a sentimental man. He looked hard at life and reported what he saw, and here he lands on something simple and true. Two are better than one, he writes, 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.

He does not pretend that men do not fall. He assumes it. The whole point turns on what happens next, on whether there is a hand nearby. A man fighting pornography will fall at some point in the long work of getting free, and the difference between a setback and a spiral is often just whether someone knew and came. Alone, the fall becomes proof of everything shame has been whispering. With a brother, the fall becomes a moment where you get pulled back to your feet and keep walking.

If you have kept yourself alone, that is the first thing to change. Ask God today to give you even one man who will be near enough to reach you when you go down.