Side by Side Quotes

“Who we love above all else is who we worship, and who we worship controls us.”
― Ed Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“We spend too much time concealing our neediness. We need to stop hiding. Being needy is our basic condition. There is no shame in it—it’s just the way it is. Understanding this, accepting it, and practicing it will make you a better helper.”
― Ed Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Confession is always a good place to start when we feel lost.”
― Ed Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Your neediness qualifies you to help others. Your neediness, offered well to someone else, can even be one of the great gifts you give to your church. You will inspire others to ask for help.”
― Ed Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Friends are the best helpers. They come prepackaged with compassion and love. All they need is wisdom, and that is available to everyone.”
― Ed Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“When happy, we possess something we love; when anxious, something we love is at risk; when despondent, something we love has been lost; when angry, something we love is being stolen or kept from us.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“The basic idea is that those who help best are the ones who both need help and give help. A healthy community is dependent on all of us being both.”
― Ed Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Practice saying, “I am a sinner, saved by grace.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Yet weakness—or neediness—is a valuable asset in God’s community. Jesus introduced a new era in which weakness is the new strength. Anything that reminds us that we are dependent on God and other people is a good thing. Otherwise, we trick ourselves into thinking that we are self-sufficient, and arrogance is sure to follow. We need help, and God has given us his Spirit and each other to provide it.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Why would anyone entertain Satan’s questions about God’s goodness when everything is good? But a few bumps in the road, and our knowledge of God seems fragile, and that’s what Satan is counting on.”
― Ed Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Our task is simple: ask for prayer and then let those who have prayed for us know what God has done. It is simple, but it is also a powerful intrusion of the Spirit in the everyday life of the church.”
― Ed Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“A child dies two days after birth. Her parents cried out for help, and hundreds of friends cried out too. Might there still have been deliverance? Consider that the parents had been delivered from death and the Evil One and that the child belonged to God and would be with him. Those deliverances might not lessen the parents’ and friends’ grief, but they do mean that the community can grieve with hope.”
― Ed Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“What is most important to us? What do we love? What is most dear to us?2 We shouldn’t be surprised that these questions get to the core of our being. They also point to where we are headed. All roads eventually lead to our relationship with God. Do we love what he loves? Is he most dear to us?”
― Ed Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“If God used only experts and people of renown, some could boast in their own wisdom, but God’s way of doing things is not the same as our way. We ordinary people have been given power and wisdom through the Holy Spirit and are called to love others (John 13:34).”
― Ed Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“If our knowledge of God is weak, we are left with a god who is a strange composite of truth, satanic lies, our projected desires and expectations, our experiences with our parents, and the accumulation of life’s hurts. This is not the God of the cross who loved us while we were enemies, and this composite will not sustain us.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“We aim to create our own psalms in which we (1) pour out our complaint to the Lord, (2) review God’s promises and his faithfulness, (3) find our rest and comfort in Jesus, and (4) let others know that they, too, can find rest and comfort. Then, when we falter, we ask for help and do it all again”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Greetings, of course, take time. This means our greeting list might be short, because we have a finite amount of time when the church is gathered—or when a friend is walking by on the street. We cannot greet everyone. So here is how we prioritize: The visitor (what Scripture calls the “foreigner” or “alien”) comes first. The visitor who returns comes next. The less popular, the introverts, the marginalized, or those sitting alone come next. Then come the children. Jesus singles them out as examples of the marginalized. “Hi, _______” is offered to as many people as possible, which doesn’t have to be accompanied by a hug or a handshake.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Endurance in suffering doesn’t grab our attention, but it is a response so important that it will have value that lasts beyond death.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“do not end the conversation without an offer to pray. Ask what he needs prayer for and either pray right then or pray later and then follow up the next time you see him.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Any such acts of love and service make life easier for the suffering person. And a meal is never just a meal; maid service is never merely a timesaver for those served. These acts say to the sufferer, “I remember you”; “I think about you often”; “You are not forgotten”; “You are on my heart”; “I love you.” The time we give to creative strategizing is the power behind such acts. It is unmistakable love that mimics the strategic planning of the triune God’s rescue mission. He planned and acted even before we knew our real needs.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“In our attempts to help, we can overinterpret suffering”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“If we make such comparisons, we might be tempted not to speak of the suffering from our hearts to the Lord because we would consider it whining, which it certainly is not.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“the call to say something does not mean that everything we say is good and helpful. It’s important to know what not to say. Sometimes we may be tempted to respond to someone’s suffering with thoughtless platitudes.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“You can probably identify your friends’ gifts rather quickly,”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Love is able to see past the clutter of a disorganized life.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“You have been given amazing gifts, and I have been praying that God would protect you so you can continue to use them well.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“most gifts emerge in the context of serving people.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“refractions of divine goodness are best identified, praised, and enjoyed. If their appearance is episodic and brief, and even if they are contaminated with selfishness or pride, don’t let the unattractive features of someone’s life blind you to the good.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“We don’t aim to draw out problems so that we can be helpers. We are simply interested in knowing another person, which is a basic feature of everyday love.”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love

“Who in your life is one step ahead of you in knowing people? What does that person do?”
― Edward T. Welch, Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love