Stay Awake

(The following is an excerpt from my book Take Heed, Watch & Pray. To be released in May 2024.)

If you want to stay awake during the darkness of the hour, you must never travel alone. There is a reason Jesus sent His disciples out two by two. It was wise to do, for as Solomon wrote:

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken (Ecclesiastes 4:9–12) ESV.

You and a fellow Christian traveler can journey together more successfully than you can individually. You can cheer up each other, help up each other, and back up each other.

Never Travel Alone

Hebrews 10:24–25 (NKJV) provides an eschatological reason for not traveling alone:

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

The writer was saying that, as the Day of the Lord comes closer, we in the Body of Christ need each other more, not less. We need to spend more time together, not less. Why? Because there’s strength when we’re together. Because we can stir each other up to love and to do good deeds. Because there’s vulnerability when we’re isolated. 

One of the things I watched during the pandemic of 2020 was how some people flourished as they still found ways to gather together and pull together. These recognized the urgency of the hour and didn’t draw away from others. Then, I noticed people who isolated themselves. These pulled away from others, they withdrew from their churches, and they were harmed by it. Some became depressed, and others grew bitter, allowing the grief that resulted from loss of loved ones and friends to turn to anger against God and His people. A lot of people deconstructed and walked away, departed from the Faith in 2020. They got addicted to porn. They got overwhelmed with anxiety and depression. They took on substances. They began to experiment with other religions, other faiths, reading some things they probably had no business reading. It vexed their righteous souls.

We should never travel alone because we need each other for a safe journey to our destination. In ancient times, they traveled in caravans with more than two people. When somebody became isolated, they became vulnerable to robbers. Our enemy is a robber. He’s a thief. You know what a thief and a con man are looking for? They’re looking for a vulnerable person, an isolated individual. This is why we never, ever, travel through life alone. We need comrades, we need brothers and sisters, we need mothers and fathers, and we need the corporate gathering. We need to be together more and more as the Day approaches because there’s safety in those numbers.

I’m remind of the flying V-formation that geese use as they migrate. Their formation is aerodynamic. The geese take turns being the lead goose and the point of the V. And they honk at each other to communicate. They can fly much farther together than they can fly alone because of their rotation and the aerodynamic form they make. But I see that honking like what Hebrews 10:25 says we should do, and that is exhort one another. 

Exhort is a military command. It isn’t just encouragement. It is calling people out. Think of boot camp, where your drill sergeant or fellow soldier is verbally provoking you to perform, to push forward, to press on. The exhortation is meant to get you to go farther than you’ve done before on your own. That’s exhortation. It is pushing you beyond what you think you’re capable of and is giving you strength.

Never travel alone. You and I need the help of exhortation, the kindness of friends.