Fellow Travelers
Life is complicated. It is full of struggles every single day. Some struggles are obviously more significant or carry a little heavier weight than others. At the same time, it is hard to know just how heavy another person’s burdens may be in the moment so we should always avoid comparing our burdens to anyone else’s. At the end of the day, burdens are burdens.
In life, however, there are helpers. Those who do what they can to help others with their burdens. Ministers, teachers, counselors, social workers, elders, nurses, and doctors are those who often come to mind, but there are so many others. However, those in helping professions or in ministry can often become jaded by the attitudes they find in their patients, clients, parishioners, or students. It is easy to develop a mindset of “them” (the ones that are broken) and “us” (those who are the healers/helpers).
One very famous psychotherapist named Irvin D. Yalom preferred to think of his patients as “fellow travelers.” He felt it prevented the false dichotomy of “them” vs. “us” (The Gift of Therapy, 2002, 8). The concept of fellow traveler reminds all people that we are, as humankind, in this journey together. There will be days that I need someone to encourage me through my struggles and there will be days that I will hopefully step up and encourage others through their struggles. That is precisely what fellow travelers do.
I’m not sure if Yalom ever followed Jesus or not, but if he had he would have very easily seen that this concept is pervasive in the Biblical text. He gave us a family that is both universal but also local called the church. We can encourage one another day by day and week by week in our gathering and studying and fellowshipping. We also “bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). When one person suffers we all suffer with them and when one part is honored we all share in the celebration (1 Corinthians 12:26).
Why? Because there is no “us” and “them.” Today I may need you. Tomorrow you may need me. And so, we journey towards the goal that we all have of heaven. Whose burden can you help shoulder this week? What burdens do you need someone to help you with this week? There is no shame in either of those things. We are fellow travelers.
Ben