It’s Spring! Usually the season of weddings, graduation parties, showers… the season of inviting a Plus One.
Instead, it's the season of Covid-19...isolation, social distancing, quarantining... We have no invites, no need for a Plus One.
Or do we?
Depending on the occasion, you might choose to bring along your significant other, your best friend. Or maybe, like many of the actors at the Oscars, you might invite your mom as your Plus One. There are certain events in life that we get to include a Plus One and other experiences that we aren't able to invite a friend, partner or parent and must go solo.
It is those times, the ones you have to go alone, that I want you to think about... when bringing your best friend or even your mom is out of the question.
This might include:
going to an interview
going into surgery
taking your driver’s test...
This might also include being lost in your aloneness, your thoughts, your own feelings and your hurts.
Life is a journey. We are not meant to walk it alone.
My very favorite quote is:
“We are all just walking each other home.”
Ram Dass
I believe we are!
On this Journey of Life, we are blessed to walk alongside others and to experience others walking alongside us. But even as "trill" (true + real) and authentic as we try to be, we are never fully known to others. Can we really share our deepest pains, fears, aspirations, longings with others and ever be completely understood by another person?
What about those times when we can’t PHYSICALLY walk each other home. Where we have to stop and journey alone? Kind of like at the airport where you have to say goodbye at security. We are no longer allowed to walk our loved ones to the gate.
"Be strong. Be brave. Be fearless. You are never alone."
Joshua 1:9
So be peace filled and confident. We always have a Plus One with us in God. He is our True Plus One. He walks beside us and holds us with His right hand as we are wheeled into surgery, as we walk into a job interview, as we sit alone in our houses waiting for the virus to flatten, and ultimately, He is the only ONE who will walk us to and through the gates of heaven.
But, like any Plus One, he needs to be invited into our life, to be asked to walk alongside us on our journey.
“God doesn’t want something from us. He simply wants US.”
C.S. Lewis
He is waiting to be invited to experience your life with you…to do life together.
Every day is a new beginning with many new surprises, events and trials waiting to unfold. It is so comforting and reassuring to know that I am not alone - my Plus One is always with me.