Going somewhere but taking no one with you.

You were not meant to go alone.

Even in a perfect world when Adam had a perfect relationship with God and a perfect Garden (the original: “All that and a bag of chips.”), God said it was not good for Adam to be alone.

But here’s the danger…

Just because you’re going somewhere with someone doesn’t mean they’re going with you on the journey.

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I observed this just a few days ago when Sonja and I boarded a plane in Bismarck to head to a conference. It was an interesting group that boarded with us.

Young and old,

Couples and singles,

Families who appeared to be going on a vacation and men and women who appeared to be going somewhere related to their jobs.

We all boarded in Bismarck and headed to Dallas and, thankfully, arrived safely and then promptly all headed our own way.

A little while later I boarded another plane for the second leg of my journey and as far as I could tell not one of those people that started the journey with me boarded the plane except one–my wife. No surprise there for they were not really with me, we just happened to cross paths for a short season of our lives.

Now Sonja is different.

Over 42 years ago, Sonja, a brand new bride, jumped in my little Ford Pinto with me committed to a life-long journey. (What was she thinking!? Thankfully, she probably wasn’t thinking, at least not to deeply.) Since then she has accompanied me to all kinds of different places and situations. It has been and still is an amazing and fulfilling journey.

However, that amazing and fulling journey came with a price, it required a major investment in a relationship…our relationship.

Now every relationship is not a life-long relationship. But if you hope to not travel alone, relationships are required, and relationships will not and cannot thrive without investments made into them.

One of my rules for life as a minister is, “While working for the people, I must be very intentional about keeping persons in my life.”

I learned that lesson the hard way. We can get so busy doing life that we forget to do life with someone. We’re going somewhere, even going with people, but they are not really with us.

That’s no way to live.

The ONE THING for today: You can have friendly conversations with and have fun with perfect strangers, but that doesn’t mean they’re going with you. Only people that you’ve invested in a relationship with are really and truly going with with you. Bottom line, don’t forget to take someone you love with you wherever it is you’re going.