As Precious as the Baal Shem Tov
The Rizhiner said that a poor, frightened Jew who still wraps himself in tallis and tefillin and walks to shul is as dear to Heaven as the Baal Shem Tov was in his time.
The Rizhiner used to speak about the Berditchever Rav, Rav Levi Yitzchok. In the Berditchever's day, it is told, whenever a Jew left his house with his tallis and tefillin tucked under his arm, Rav Levi Yitzchok would lift his hands to Heaven and speak up for all of Klal Yisroel. Ribbono Shel Olam, he would say, how can You have any complaint against Your children? Here is a Jew who sets his business aside and goes to shul to daven.
Then the Rizhiner turned to his own generation. If the Berditchever could see a Jew heading to shul today, he said, he would plead even more. This Jew leaves a home of poverty, with no money and not a crust of bread in the house. His heart trembles that the army's snatchers will take his sons. And still he goes to daven.
The Rizhiner finished with words that his chassidim never forgot. In these times, he said, any Jew who wraps himself in a tallis and tefillin and goes to shul is as important in Heaven as the Baal Shem Tov was in his lifetime, and the Maggid of Mezritch in his.
Source: Beis Yisroel, p. 15:28.
On a day when davening feels dry, or when worries are loud, notice that you showed up anyway. You put on tefillin, opened a siddur, or stopped in the middle of your day to speak to Hashem. Tell yourself, plainly, that this effort is dear to Him, just as the Rizhiner taught. Then treat the next person you see davening the same way: assume that coming at all took strength, and give him a quiet nod of respect.