To Not Journey Alone

Today's title actually came before the post. Unusual for me. Which is why I even have a title. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, see the last two posts below this one.)

To say we've been in a season of trial, some days feels like an understatement. Just yesterday I asked the Lord if I could please enter a season where I didn't cry every day. In fairness, some days it feels like a really good workout exercise where you are energized afterwards and your muscles burn with warmth in a good way. But most days, it feels like a marathon I didn't train for. And didn't want to enter.

"In this world you will have trouble" its inevitable. Thinking just because you are a Christian or a good person, or a hard worker that you get to escape the inevitable is not only naive but a tad on S-T-U-P-I-D side. (We don't say that word in our house which is why I had to spell it out.) What makes the trouble or the trial or the pain bearable is not going it alone. If you are a believer in Christ, you have the best Companion ever: the Holy Spirit, to lead, guide, direct, counsel, comfort. The Bible promises that we will never be alone. Sometimes, though, we need a physical-I-can-see-and-touch-you person to walk along with. Someone who not only can empathize and bring wisdom but who has walked a similar path before. Someone who KNOWS, and is not just imagining what it must be like, but KNOWS the stink of it.

Yesterday, in the middle of my stink, a friend asked how it was going. And I was honest. And then out of politeness asked how she was doing. And she was honest. Seems we are walking a parallel season of stink. And the connection to our pain was instant. And comforting. Certainly, it doesn't displace the Holy Spirit or His work on our behalf, but this was like an extra blessing. Her encouragement and head nods were from experience, recent experience. My reassurance and empathy hit home because I'm walking down that same road. We left each other with no externals any different than before. And yet, to know that we didn't journey alone brought a comfort to my soul that soothed the ache-i-ness. I hope it did for her as well.

God chooses the trial, stress or pain of our lives because He knows that through Him, we are able to endure - and more - be victorious in a way that another person may not. We're not so special to get a trial, stress or pain that no one else has had to endure. And sometimes He knows that we need a little "seen" and "touchable" in the middle of our stink. He knows we need to know that we do not journey down our path alone.

Today I am thanking Him for the reminder that I am not the only one enduring a season for stress. There are others around me, close "others" that have a similar, if not harder burden to bear.