When a friend or loved one is down, the best thing you can do is to simply listen. Everyone needs a listening ear. A chance to talk things out. To vent a little. To name all the things:
What I long for, I can’t seem to find.
Will I ever make it?
I just can’t stop crying.
Where is God, anyway?
I used to love going to church—now it just feels…
Life is crushing me.
I feel forgotten.
Will this last forever?
Just sit and listen. No trite advice. No religious cliches. Be a good friend like that. In grace and compassion, let them arrive at their own conclusion in their own time, where they can say of their own accord:
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Show yourself the same grace and compassion. Be the same good friend to your own soul.
(See Psalm 42).