Let's Go Together

I like living life in pairs and groups.  There is something about the shared experience that adds to the memory.

A few years ago I read a book by Reuben Welch entitled We Really Do Need Each Other.  In it he tells this story.

“After teaching a class on group and interpersonal relations at the college campus where he taught, the class decided to take an hour and a half group hike together up to a place called Henniger Flats, just outside Pasadena, California.  It was to be a sort of culmination of all that they had learned during the class time.

They picked the day, they set the time, they made the sandwiches and the chocolate and bought the soft drinks and packed the back-packs and off they went.

The strong, stalwart ones started out fast, lead by Don, a former paratrooper.  In no time the group was strung out all along the trail on their way up to the top of Henniger Flats, with Don in the lead, marking the trail for the others to follow. 

Don paused, looked back a few switch-backs and saw Jane, who was as we say “a bit over weight.” 

Don felt a strong urge to go back and walk with Jane for a while, which he did.  The others up ahead often called out, “Come on up.  Go faster.” 

Jane would call back, “I can’t.  I don’t think I can make it.”

“Oh yes you can.  Try harder,” came the reply.

And Jane did not make it to the top.

Thankfully the group decided that this was no way to end this shared experience together, so they decided to try again, only this time they made some new rules.

This time we will all go together, or we don’t go at all.”

So they picked the day, they set the time, they made the sandwiches and the chocolate and bought the soft drinks and packed the back-packs and off they went.

Time passed.

It took them four hours to reach the top, and by the time they arrived all of the back packs were empty, the sandwiches were eaten, and the hot coco and the soft drinks were all gone. 

BUT THEY MADE IT, TOGEHER.

TOGETHER!!!

What a concept. 

What if we adopted this idea a bit more in our lives, in our towns, our state, and our communities? 

What if families banded together in such a way as this and determined “we are family, we are together, and we survive together.”

What if churches exhibited this concept?  We would probably sing a good mixture of hymns and praise songs and nobody would be left out. 

What if the strong stalwart ones could humble themselves enough to reach back for the weaker, slower ones and lend a helping hand? 

That would be something else, wouldn’t it?

We’ve got to go together!

Some will definitely 

have to slow down.

          And some will probably

need to speed up.

But we do it together.  We go … together.

It’s not a matter of finishing first, or having your own way.  It’s working together as a group, sharing, laughing, loving, crying, but it’s all about this thing called “TOGETHER”.

We are facing some dire times.  If ever there was a time for us to pull together it is now.  Jobs are being lost. Families are stressed and being pulled apart.  Blood pressures are rising, bank accounts are dwindling. 

What do you say?  Next Saturday, how about all of us go up to Henniger Flats? 

Together!