Mark 6:7
Forever ago, I was in Boy Scouts. Some of you are thinking how great that is, and I’m thinking how horrible it was. My Boy Scout troop wasn’t the cool troop by any means. Sure there was a couple of guys in the group that I would have loved to be and looked up to, but they didn’t have anything to do with me. I was stuck with all the guys that I thought were the nerds of the pack.
Of course the guys I liked were much older than me, they had a higher rank, and never had to practice tying knots like us younger boys. They got to go explore and find stuff in the woods to bring it back to the hut for the rest of us to gloat over.
One lucky night, my name was called to get to go explore the great wide yonder (looking back on it, it was only about 3 acres) with all the older boys. I was so excited. I couldn’t believe that out of all the rest of the tenderfoots I was the chosen one.
When my name was called, I ran up to the den leader, only for him to let me know I was paired up with Jason (of course that isn’t his real name). Despite my excitement of getting to play with the big boys, the guy I was to buddy (remember the buddy system?) with was the older guy that the rest of the older guys made fun of. I was terrified to say the least because my dream of becoming popular seemed shattered. No one can become popular tied to the person nobody likes, right?
I wonder what the disciples were thinking when Jesus paired them up to go into the world. The disciples were normal people from different families and backgrounds. Jesus selected them randomly; they got on each other’s nerves. In Matthew 18, they even get in an argument over who’s the greatest!
This makes me think that they had to have been wishful thinking about who they would be paired with when Jesus was making teams. Jesus wasn’t a Boy Scout, but He undoubtedly knew how hard it would be to go into the World and preach the good news. This may seem like a stretch to some, but if it wasn’t going to be hard, then I don’t believe Jesus would have equipped them with the ability to cast out evil spirits!
But I think this is the point we can get from this: we can’t go into the World alone. As believers in Christ, we have the power of the Holy Spirit, just like the disciples, but that wasn’t and isn’t good enough. If so, then Jesus would have sent them out one by one. To be blunt, we have to have one other on our journey.
I’m not a big fan of wikipedia, but I like its definition of buddy system. It says, “The buddy system is a procedure in which two people, the buddies, operate together as a single unit so that they are able to monitor and help each other. In adventurous or dangerous activities, where the buddies are often equals, the main benefit of the system is improved safety: each may be able to prevent the other becoming a casualty or rescue the other in a crisis. When this system is used as part of training or the induction of newcomers to an organization, the less experienced buddy learns more quickly from close and frequent contact with the experienced buddy than when operating alone.”
As the night progressed and Jason and I got further away from the hut, I realized that I was glad that I had someone with me. We had ventured a good ways away, and trying to find a hut in the dark wasn’t easy or fun. I was ready to cry, but Jason was ready to help me get back to where I needed to be. At that point, I didn’t care that Jason wasn’t the most popular. I was just glad I wasn’t out in the scary woods alone.
As Christians, we need each other to help us find our ways back home each time we get lost or scared. Let’s be the kind of buddy that is always ready to help! Let’s get over trying to be the coolest and most popular, and work towards always finding our way back to where we need to be.