"Hug" One Another
"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."1
Charles Swindoll shares how, in the fall of the year, Linda, a young woman, was traveling alone up the rutted and rugged highway from Alberta, Canada, to the Yukon. Linda didn't know that you don't travel to Whitehorse alone in a rundown Honda Civic, so she set off where only four-wheel drives normally venture.
The first evening she found a room in the mountains near a summit and asked for a 5 A.M. wake-up call so she could get an early start. She couldn't understand why the clerk looked surprised at that request, but as she awoke to early-morning fog shrouding the mountain tops, she understood.
Not wanting to look foolish, she got up and went to breakfast. Two truckers invited Linda to join them, and since the place was so small, she felt obliged. "Where are you headed?" one of the truckers asked.
"Whitehorse," she answered.
"In that little Civic?" one of them said. "No way! This pass is DANGEROUS in weather like this."
"Well, I'm determined to try," was Linda's gutsy, if not very informed, response.
"Then I guess we're just going to have to hug you," the trucker suggested.
Linda drew back. "There's no way I'm going to let you touch me!" she said angrily.
"Not like THAT!" the truckers chuckled. "We'll put one truck in front of you and one in the rear. In that way, we'll get you through the mountains."
All that foggy morning Linda followed the two red dots (tail lights) in front, and had the reassurance of a big escort behind her as they made their way safely through the mountains.
Caught in the fog in our dangerous passage through life, we need to be "hugged," says Chuck Swindoll. With fellow Christians who know the way and can lead safely ahead of us, and with others behind, gently encouraging us along, we, too, can pass safely.2
Suggested prayer, "Dear God, please give me loving friends to support me through life's journey, and help me to be such a friend to other fellow strugglers. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."
1. Galatians 6:2 (NKJV).
2. Charles R. Swindoll, Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), p. 286.
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