During one of the last days of my original drive to Flagstaff, I felt the urge to listen to the devotional that had been delivered to my email inbox that morning. I receive a devotional from this particular organization every day, but I don’t listen to them on a consistent basis. For some reason, something kept pulling at me to pay attention to this day’s email. I wasn’t even aware of the title, I just knew it was sitting in my inbox as it does every day; the direct cause of the steady increase in my unread messages. I finally cracked and played it through my radio as I drove through the mountains. It was titled, Are you taking people ‘Along for the Journey’ with you? Following a piece of scripture from Acts and an application portion, the following questions were posed:
How about you? Who has taken you along for the journey? Who have you taken along for the journey? Who might you take along for the journey in the days ahead?
As soon as the recording came to an end, I turned off my radio and just talked to God. I wondered what he was trying to tell me in this brief message, especially as I headed into this new beginning. It caused me to step back and do a lot of reflecting concerning this whole “along for the journey” concept. Who has taken me along for the journey? I played through the many people who have included me on their adventures, taken me into their lives, poured into me or simply befriended me. That alone was overwhelming. So many shaping experiences played through my mind as I was reminded that God had orchestrated each of these interactions long before I knew His name. I became so thankful to be a part of so many different journeys – the opportunity to be present and grow in those moments, the weaving of so many stories, sharing in relationship with these people, and the forming of so many memories.
After playing through many glimpses of time shared with others, my mind carried over to the next question that had been posed. Who have you taken along for the journey? To be completely honest, I ran smack into a brick wall. I could imagine my praise-filled eyes that had resulted from reflecting on all of the people that had carried me on their journeys, immediately fell into a blank stare.
“Nobody,” I thought. “I’m out here adventuring from Ohio to Arizona and everything in between and I’ve done a lousy job at bringing anyone with me.” My mind began to wander. I was unquestionably loving this adventure. I was thriving in the unknowns of every turn, but was I doing a good job at bringing people along? Was I providing others the opportunities similar to those that I had been given? Opportunity to learn, grow, and be a friend? Or was I consuming every experience for myself?
Ok, moving on. Who might you take along for the journey in the days ahead? The challenge. In this moment, I challenged myself to make a conscious effort in bringing others along on this journey with me. At the time, I didn’t quite know what that would look like, but however it was to come about, it was a new goal of mine.
Throughout the first weeks of my time in this new place, these questions remained fresh in my mind and I continued to ask God to help me recognize what he was showing me, if there was actually a message in all of this. God began to show me that maybe I hadn’t done as poorly as I had originally thought in bringing people along for the journey. I recognized that my bringing someone along on the journey may look just slightly different from somebody else’s bringing someone along on the journey due to my frequent change in physical location and though I can’t physically bring everyone along on this crazy adventure, I realized that God has given me an opportunity to bring people along in such a unique way. How cool is that? In addition to this blog, and my best efforts to keep it decently up-to-date, phone calls on long drives and during my almost daily run have aided in this process. It’s become quite a common occurrence for a friend to answer my phone call and almost immediately say, “Are you running again?” It sounds ridiculous, but it truly has allowed me to sustain so many relationships, even from a distance. And it turns out that talking and running helps increase endurance too!
Although these realizations began to bring comfort to my questioning mind, I still wanted to strive to be better at bringing people along for the journey. As I spent more time dwelling on these questions, it became more and more evident to me that my journey was paved to be shared. God had been and is moving in big ways in my life and to keep it all for myself would be a shame. Besides, there are many times that I just can’t contain my excitement in the things that God places in front of me.
My time in Flagstaff seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye and the end of my assignment left me considering if this would be my home someday. To this day, I am not sure that if I were to go back in time and “re-do” my thirteen weeks there, that it could have been any better. I was convinced, and still am, that the location was handpicked for me, with so many nearby hikes, the view of the mountain, a lake to watch the sunset at just a short drive down the road, and a plethora of coffee shops to choose from. I again, was reminded of the passion that I have for my job and my love for simply bonding with my patients. Speaking of passions, my heart was filled with joy in being able to serve in our church’s children ministry almost every Sunday morning. In my time spent with Donna and Roy via video, we explored so many aspects of intimacy within the Trinity and how we, too, are invited to share in that beautiful image of love. Furthermore, everywhere I turned, I was overwhelmed by the warm community that I was surrounded by – people that I had met at work, church, the gym, or through other new friends. It was as if each week my eyes were opened to a whole new definition of love with Donna and Roy, and then God was like, “Here, this is kind of what it’s like” in giving me a greater image of love in the flesh week after week. (Because God knows His love is so much greater than I can begin to comprehend, no matter how hard I try!)
So how do these questions that I started out with connect back through my time in Flagstaff, might you ask? Well, to be honest, the questions rang fresh in my mind throughout the first few weeks, but then they drifted off as new thoughts and friendships filled my time. Upon the end of my assignment, I drove down to Phoenix, locked up my car in a storage unit, and hopped on a plane back to Ohio for Christmas. It was on my flight home as I began to reflect on where I had been, as I often do on flights, that these questions resurfaced.
Who has taken you along for the journey? Who have you taken along for the journey? Who might you take along for the journey in the days ahead?
There was that brick wall again. I was 100% dumbfounded. But this time, it wasn’t because I didn’t have a great answer. It was because my mind was flooded with answers to every single question.
Who has taken you along for the journey? Seemingly, every single person that I met. Kailey giving me her number at church that very first day turned into an intentional dinner date every single week. Monika, my spin instructor, taking me up on my offer to become friends, opened the door to many conversations over coffee. Meeting Cass on day one of work, who was thankfully as aggressive as I in “forcing” friendship, leading to a road trip to Phoenix to support another coworker in coaching a roller derby team just a few days later. Stef, a coworker that I hardly knew, and her husband invited me to her home for a dinner and game night, which led to many yoga sessions, walks around town, and coffees at the favorite local café. Joining J.J. in his adventure back from the confluence and beyond. Learning to pack my backpack and climb outdoors from Kyle. A growing relationship with another coworker, Katelin, including dog walks, hikes, and a birthday trip to a meadery, a first for both of us… oh, and coloring my hair blue! Enjoying a favorite local flavor and location with new friends, Ryan and Matt… more than once. Juno, my fellow travel nurse, committing to many tough hikes, which he soon realized was also a commitment to depths of conversation. Carving pumpkins, rolling sushi, and many trivia nights with my roommate Ciara. Darrin, a best friend from childhood making the trip to Flagstaff for a few days of exploration. Reuniting with Kurt, another travel nurse from my home county for a weekend of hiking and camping after many years off of the charts. All of these people and so many others took the step to take ME along on their journey. They allowed me the opportunity to be a small part of their story, to walk by their sides. Many of the interactions above can be described in a few words, they were a single event or a series of events. But within those times, an abundance of conversations took place, from hobbies to family dynamics to favorite colors to today’s personal struggles. As I reflected on “part #1” of my three-question extravaganza, I realized that the door being opened to me partaking on a journey with someone wasn’t restricted to an “event”. It wasn’t just an invitation that came to an close at the end of the day. It was someone opening the door to let me into their life. What a beautifully, yet vulnerable, picture. It was a door opened to building a relationship of trust and depth, even if just for a matter of time. How absolutely humbling to see how many people, in a span of three months, had opened this door to me.
Oh boy. Here we go. Who have you taken along for the journey? I sat still and pondered for a moment (not that I had much choice). Who did I take along for the journey in the past three months? A smile grew across my face. God gave me so many people to take along for the journey. First off, my awareness grew of all those who had already been following along my journey; those who had become part of my journey pre-Arizona. All of you, who take the time to read these sometimes quite lengthy blogs. Those that I had met and connected with throughout my time in North Carolina, Missouri, Costa Rica, and every pit stop along the way. My friends back home from my childhood neighbors through high school friends to my college teammates. My family. This was a big one and a priority of focus for my challenge to improve in sharing my journey. I was intentional in making phone calls home, but more even so, began sharing photos of my most recent adventures and sometimes even taking a moment to facetime family when I made it to the viewpoint of a hike. I wanted to do better at sharing my actual experiences with them and feel as though I was given the perfect opportunity to do so. Lastly, as I grew in relationship with all of these new faces, I was able to share my journey as well. Just as my new friends sharing their journey with me transcended the boundaries of a single event, my sharing with them transcended the time physically spent together as well. God gave me this opportunity to build relationships, relationships of depth and trust, but it didn’t end there. These relationships became a pedestal to share my story and the amazing ways that God has moved in my life. The testimony that I have in response to the questions of “What brought you here?” and “Where are you going next?” or even “Why do you sit at coffee shops so often?” only points to God. There is no way for me to answer these questions, among many others, without the mention of His name. This path has too many twists and turns for my direct, point A to point B mind. So with that, I found peace in knowing that I did indeed take people along for my journey and my prayer is that my sharing had as much impact on those, as I had experienced in others sharing with me.
Who might you take along for the journey in the days ahead? My wish is that I could take every single person that I have ever interacted with on my journey in the days ahead and that I too, could join them on their journeys. But the reality is that we live in lives of seasons and finding peace in that is a beautiful thing. Our life paths have been perfectly laid out by our Creator and those paths are crossed in perfect timing. No matter whether the crossing is as brief as a four-way intersection or it looks more like two train tracks joining together for the rest of the ride, we all have opportunity to share our journeys in those moments in a way that can impact the other’s path, even from afar. So, who might I take along for the journey in the days ahead? I have no idea, but I know someone that does and that is exciting. I am eager to carry on this adventure and discover who just might share their journey with me, and I with them.
I can’t go without mentioning my appreciation for all of you who have continued to share in my journey – whether by solely reading these updates or through reaching out in calls and texts. Thank you for sharing in my journey and more so, for allowing me to share in yours. Please know that your impacts have outlasted our time physically together.
Lastly, I don’t write to say look at what I did, but to challenge you, the reader, to ask yourself these questions.
Who has taken you along for the journey? Who have you taken along for the journey? Who might you take along for the journey in the days ahead?
And please, if you are feeling led to share, I would love to hear some responses.
The journey continues…