If you want to go far…

“How far is it?”  

Kris shrugged his shoulders, “Oh, probably 6-7 miles.”

I raised my eyebrows. Hmmmm…  We were considering joining my brother and his wife and kids on a hike Saturday morning. We were up for an adventure, but I was unsure if our littles, at 4 and 6 years old, could handle a 6-7 mile hike up Table Rock to the highest point at almost 5,000 feet. Their kids, the same age as ours, were going, so we too shrugged our shoulders, packed some chocolate chip cookies as incentive for reaching the summit, and piled in the car early Saturday morning.

We wound around and up the windy, narrow, mostly gravel road up into the Table Rock wilderness, 30 minutes into the Molalla River Corridor. By the time we parked, loaded up our backpacks, and started hiking, our kids were already saying they were hungry and tired.

Oh dear.

The first five minutes Heidi whined. And whined and whined. I admit I kept thinking, “What on earth are we doing?!” But then, slowly, as we trekked up the trail, the complaints grew quieter and their little steps seemed surer. By halfway up, when it was time to scale the jagged rock face to a look-out point, Heidi scrambled her way up like she was born to climb.  At the very top, after much celebration and cookie-eating, the kids ran around playing pretend and exclaiming, “I’m not even tired!”

When all was said and done, it was a 8.3 mile hike and all four kids hiked valiantly. Sure, there were trips and tears and tired legs. There were bloody elbows, two wasp stings, and a fair share of complaining. But the way down we had four kids running, laughing and racing and sweating and brown with dirt and flush with fun. And when we piled in the car, we cheered for those kids and their 8.3 mile hike and they smiled wide and the two littlest ones promptly fell asleep.  And we all agreed that the kids’ success was largely due to the fact that they had each other.

I couldn’t help but think of the African proverb:

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Sure, it took us 5 hours. We didn’t win any medals for speed. But those little tiny 4-year-old legs accomplished something great because there was another set of tiny 4-year-old legs walking alongside them. 

The truth is, we never would have taken our kids on something that far if it wasn’t for my brother and his wife. My kids would never have accomplished something like that if it weren’t for their cousins. And as we approach the one-year mark of planting RENEW church, I’m struck most of all by the truth that we were meant to travel together. What is impossible alone is possible together. Such a faithful team. Such a loyal family. Such support and love and joy and encouragement. Like the Pioneers, traveling 2,000 miles on foot, we have to be part of a group doing life together if we want to go far in following Jesus. We need family members, running partners, friends.

But here’s the catch: In order to go far, together, we have to let others see us weak. See us struggle. 

On the hike, my brother’s family saw us struggle. Saw Heidi sob. Saw Dutch screaming when he got stung. Our family at RENEW has seen us struggle. Get discouraged. Want to quit. Cry. My running partner has seen my grumpy mornings. Our housemate sees us high and low, sees joys and sorrows. Sees A+ parenting days and big fat F parenting days.

But we’re going far … together. 

So two questions for us to consider:

1. Where does God want me to go?
2. Who does He want me to go with?

Chances are, He’s calling someone else to go the same direction as you. Just last week I was sharing a struggle with a friend, and discovered not only that she was facing the same thing, but had ideas for how we could help each other along the way. I jumped on board and before I knew we were partnered up, pursuing obedience together!

So our job is to listen carefully to Him, then look carefully around. Who else is going the same direction? 

Join hands, pack some snacks, and head on up the mountain. You’ll go far.

{Where are you headed this week? Perhaps we can join you. Thanks for reading!}