Traveling back from a trip recently, as we taxied to the gate, the pilot came over the loud speaker and told us that the good news was we arrived early, the bad news was, we arrived early and we had to wait for a plane to clear our gate. What started out as a ten-minute wait turned into thirty.
By the time we were cleared to approach the gate and we started to disembark, my connecting flight was already boarding. I started running through the airport and frankly, becoming more nervous with each step that I might actually miss my flight.
While running, I came across another passenger en route to the same connecting flight. We ran the last part of the distance together and as we did, we became more relaxed and actually, chuckled a little at the sight of us running through the airport with carryon luggage in tow. Somehow, sharing the stress with someone helped us both. When we finally made it to our gate, (which was in another terminal), we were literally the last ones to board. We high-fived one another as our stress gave way to a sense of accomplishment . . . we’d done it, we’d made our flight!
Anne Graham Lotz shares about how companionship impacts the journey. In her new book, Jesus in Me, she reflects that her daily exercise walks seem harder and longer when she walks alone. She notes that her knees ache more and even her breath seems more labored.
She elaborated on this principle in the message I had the privilege of hearing first hand last week at a dinner at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,
“While the direction, pace, and length of the routine is the same whether I walk alone with someone, a good companion makes a distinct difference in my overall enjoyment and well-being.”
I deeply appreciated Anne’s elaboration about the daily walk of life. How living day after day, week after week, year after year, requires effort, energy, commitment, focus, thought. I came away from the dinner event with many notes from Anne’s message but what resonated most with me was her admission that what she’s needed in life is a walking partner – someone who would come alongside her and share every step of the journey,
“Someone in whom I could confide. Someone with whom I could discuss issues that are on my mind someone who would answer questions. Help me with decisions.”
Where did she find such a walking partner? She looked within. Because, as she notes, as a child of God, God has given her the ultimate walking partner for life, His Spirit.
Anne shared, “I have learned, day in and day out, that the Holy Spirit is all that Jesus is, though without His physical body.” Through the passing of her father, becoming a widow and then, being diagnosed with breast cancer, through the grief and comfort, she has experienced the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit.
One of my biggest take-aways and a message she echoes in her radio programs, “Daily Light for Daily Living” and “Living in the Light,” is this very life principle,
Stay focused . . . Stop looking back at what might have, could have, should have been. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth . . . live out this commitment by opening your Bible and reading it, listening for the Spirit’s gentle whispers! Let Him turn over the puzzle pieces for you. He will. I know. Because He has turned over the puzzle pieces for me, revealing He is my constant companion – Jesus in me.”
Thank you for your continued prayers for Anne – having just recently completed her cancer treatment, she is writing, speaking and sharing her journey . . . as she has noted,
“He has a purpose in this and I am looking for ways that I can reach out and can be a blessings and encouragement to somebody else.”
