Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve remembered the old rock song “Lean On Me.” You probably remember it as well. It’s almost as popular today as it was when it was recorded by Bill Withers.

I checked out the lyrics the other day. These are a couple of the verses: “Lean on me, when you’re not strong. And I’ll be your friend. I’ll help you carry on. For it won’t be long Til I’m gonna need somebody to lean on . . . . You just call on me brother, when you need a hand. We all need somebody to lean on. I just might have a problem that you’ll understand. We all need someone to lean on.”

What got me thinking about this is the story I read by Warren Wiersbe. He told of missionary John G. Paton who translated the New Testament for the New Hebrides Islands inhabitants.

The New Hebrides Islands (now known as the nation of Vanuatu in the south Pacific) were named by Captain Cook in 1774. He called them New Hebrides after the Hebrides Islands off the coast of Scotland. In the 1800’s John G. Paton went as a missionary to the New Hebrides. As he translated the New Testament he found difficulty in finding the right word for “to believe.” It’s really hard to translate or read the New Testament without the word believe. As Paton searched for the right word for belief and faith, he finally chose a word of the islanders that means to “lean on with all your weight.”

Faith is leaning on God with all your weight. It is trusting him completely and following him totally. It means knowing that He is the Lord God, that He is good, and that you can lean on Him with all your weight.

I came to know Christ when my mother told me to “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

That day I leaned on Jesus with all my weight. That experience, that act of faith, set me on the course of unimaginable blessing.

What a joy to have someone to lean on.

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