I was leaving the sanctuary one Sabbath afternoon when adolescent me tripped over my own toes. As I fell, I wondered how long it would take for me to regain my nonexistent social standing after I ate carpet. As the ground neared, I suddenly felt a harsh wrenching pain in my right shoulder as someone grabbed my arm.

“Stand up,” my youth director whispered in my ear as she hauled me to my feet before I could complete my fall.

I faltered as I regained coordination of my lower extremities, but she held me up as we walked out of the sanctuary and into the hallway. After she made eye contact to make sure I was OK, we continued on to our destination. If the girls walking behind noticed my near-disastrous fall, they said nothing. I rolled my shoulder and winced, but I was happy for the physical pick-me-up that literally saved my face.

Several years later while I was attending Southern Adventist University I experienced another pick-me-up—also from an adult mentor. One semester I was slogging through 16 credits, and my spiritual life was slipping. As I was getting ready to leave work one day, my supervisor handed me a book and said, “I saw this and thought of you.” The book, College Faith, contained stories from Christian leaders and educators about their college days. Not only did my supervisor’s gentle gesture give me a spiritual lift that day, but the book’s stories gave my devotional life a spiritual pick-me-up for the rest of the semester.

Jesus also knew the power of a properly placed pick-me-up. When He was alive, it was a high honor for Jewish parents to apprentice their child to a rabbi—an apprenticeship reserved for only the most intellectually promising children. James and John were not in this category. Jesus found them excluded from the cool kids and slogging through the requirements of life, but He didn’t leave them there. He saw in them the ability to change the world. They just needed a little assistance. When He offered them the opportunity to be His disciples, the brothers saw a chance to do something beyond their father’s trade, to bring honor to their family, and to have a hand in the Messiah’s mission. Instantly they ditched their nets and followed Him. Jesus picked up James and John in the middle of everyday life, and they became the bookends of the apostles’ missionary movement.

Just as Jesus and as the two women who picked me up did when I was on my way down, Christians have the power to be a source of life in the lives of those around us. Many people are falling or are in need of help. Some could change the world if they just had a little assistance. Others may be slogging through and appear just fine, but we may not know the extent of the issues they are actually dealing with. One small gesture that shows them someone cares can change their lives for the better. Ecclesiastes tells us that two are better than one, because if one falls the other can pick that person up (Eccl. 4:10). As a Christian I want to be the person there to pick up those who fall. Both my youth director and supervisor took the opportunity to help me when they saw a need. Their example reminds me to be attentive to those in my life who could use a pick-me-up.