Traveling Companions

Luke 10:1-2

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

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Do you need anybody
I just need someone to love
Could it be anybody
I want somebody to love.

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

"With a Little Help from My Friends" by Joe Cocker

God bless the "Lone Wolf", but the truth is that people live longer when they live with somebody. With a partner in life, life is fuller, life is more wonderful. As it says in Genesis 2, God did not make man to be alone. So it's a wild world out there. The going is not easy. We need people in our lives, we need partners. We need traveling companions on the big blue marble. We need people to share the ups in life and maybe even more, we need people to share the downs.

Jesus knew this too. He knew when he sent the disciples out in the world that while seventy disciples could cover more territory; it would be more effective, more efficient, and better for everyone concerned to send 35 couples. Jesus knew it would be better for the disciples and better for those hearing the gospel if the disciples went out in pairs. Pairs bring balance. Pairs bring different views of the same Lord, just look at the gospels for an example of that. Pairs make a single person a group of three, and where two or more are assembled...

Well, that just goes to show the Lord is not a lone wolf.

Joe sings of wanting someone to love, anyone to love. This is the what God expresses in creation. We were created so that the Lord would have someone to share creation with. We were created to be in a couple with our Lord. This is the emphasis upon being the Bride of Christ. We are called into a loving relationship with God and with each other through the church. God created us to join him in that journey together.

What begins as a simple couple, what begins with the a pair of disciples going out two-by-two is just a reflection of how we are called into relationship with the Lord God. We are called to be God's traveling companions in this life. So find a partner, a prayer partner or a life partner, an evangelism partner or a study partner, and go into the world with the one who has called us to be traveling companions, to bring in the harvest in the name of the Lord.

This is how we get by, with a little help from our friends.

Value of Information--Information of Values

Thanks for the request Andrew!


Ecclesiastes 1:12-14 (NRSV)

I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

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Same old song
Just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do
Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see
Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind

"Dust in the Wind" by Kerry Livgren from "Point of Know Return" by Kansas

Greed was a sin, a sin that eventually played in the death of Judas. But vanity, oh vanity, there's a sin for the ages.

The teacher in Ecclesiastes has a point about the thirst for wisdom, chasing the wisdom of the world is an unhappy business, a vain pursuit. All that we do, all that is done under the sun; all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

We live in the "information age." We constantly seek information, thinking that more and better information will increase wisdom. Many say that they have to see it themselves, do it themselves before they will believe. Everyone wants the hands on experience, not trusting the word or deeds of another.

We hope that more information will lead to better wisdom. It is unfortunate that more often than not, more information leads only to a better quality of chaos. All of the information in the world does not lead to wisdom, synthesis of information around a compass is how information points to wisdom. And perhaps there is no greater wisdom than knowing that all of our information seeking is vanity and a chasing after wind.

All we do crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see. The pyramids have been around for thousands of years. But of the ancient wonders of the world, what others still exist? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? The Colossus of Rhodes? The Lighthouse of Alexandria? Dust in the wind, each and every one.

The greatest monuments of the ages now just memories. Ecclesiastes reminds us that the great wisdom of the world is not found in the vanities of our lives. It is found in the value of a friend because two are better than one. When one falls, there is another to lift the stricken.

It is reverence, humility, and contentment that are to be prized above all else. Service not to the things of the world, but to the Lord who created it is where wisdom lies.

It's easy to say that the one with the gold rules, but it is better to give the gold for the Kingdom of God than to keep it for the Colossus who will fade into distant memory.