Don't Journey Alone
I have been thinking a lot lately of how following Jesus is like a journey. We all are invited into this epic race, and though it is an individual calling, the journey really becomes a team effort. Let me paint a picture for you of what I mean.
When my husband and I were newlyweds, we volunteered with a ministry called Young Life. Our calling to serve as volunteer leaders was individual, but as we started building relationships with these kids, we realized we needed to be supported. We quickly became friends with another young couple who was serving at another high school in our city. Though we had known this couple in college, we did not actually form a true friendship with them until we all began to serve as volunteer Young Life leaders.
Over the course of our four years of service, this couple became very dear to us. We shared dinners, joys, sorrows. We prayed for each other and spurred each other in our ministries. We carried each other through the hard bits of ministry.
As I look back, I have come to realize that our deep friendship was built on something deeper than common interest, it was built on Christ. Our passion was for the kids we ministered to and very few people understood the heartache, fatigue, time, and effort that we poured into our calling. Though we had similar interests, we found depth and ease in our common calling to serve Christ. We shared laughs and stories and food because no one else in our circle of friends understood quite like this couple what effort it took to serve Christ in this way.
What few people knew at that time was that I was very conflicted. I did not doubt God’s leading us to Young Life as volunteer leaders, yet my insecurities reminded me on a weekly basis that I was far out of my comfort zone. I wanted to quit many times over our four years of service, but our friendship with this couple encouraged me and spurred me on. You see it was the sharpening that only happens through relationships with others, that pushed me to continue to obey God when my instincts were telling me to walk away.
Friend, your role in the healthcare industry is hard. Whether you are a physician, Nurse practitioner, nurse, physical therapist, respiratory therapist, PCA, MA, or secretary, you have a hard job. No one quite understands the physical and emotional toll our jobs have on us besides those who also work in healthcare. And, no one knows how to push us and encourage us better than other followers of Jesus.
“And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” Acts 2:24-31
Why is it do you think that Jesus established a kingdom that is a community of his people? Why do you think he calls his church a “body,” in reference to the human body, which as we know are cells and organs, communing together and working together to accomplish a goal? You may have been called as a person to be a doctor or nurse, or ______, but you have also been called into a body.
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 24-27
Let me encourage you today that you are not alone. Not only is Christ with you, but you have a whole organ system of followers of Christ that truly understand your hardships as a healthcare professional. Keep running, friend, but don’t run alone. Ask God to bring you a friend, a fellow member of the body to encourage you, push you to Christ, sharpen you, and remind you of who you are really working for. If God has included us in the community of the Body, you can trust that he will bring you a friend or group of friends to bear your burdens.
Written by Sara Danielle Hill