Waypoint: Together, Not Just Nearby

 

What’s a Waypoint?

Every journey has moments when we pause—not because we’re lost, but because we need to reflect, catch our breath, or realign. Waypoints are those moments. These posts are personal reflections along the trail—sometimes messy, sometimes encouraging—but always centered on the faithful Guide who walks with us.

Abiding and Walking Together

I was reflecting on something today that got me thinking about John 15 and how we are called to abide in Him—the VINE—as we are the branches that depend on the vine (John 15:1–5). Over the years, I’ve come across various ideas, analogies, or examples that help me understand better what it means to abide in HIM. After all, it’s one of those clear-yet-mysterious concepts we talk about. It sounds clear (and I believe it is), but sometimes we can struggle with the life application.

Don’t get me wrong—sometimes “life application” is simply a beautiful truth that we meditate on (apply to our hearts) in order to know God better and draw closer to Him. Sometimes there may be tangible “do’s” that we glean from our time in the Word. Yet we must always be careful not to let a list of do’s become what our faith is—after all, Christianity is not about what we do, it’s about what has been done for us.

So coming back to “abiding,” I thought I’d share something (a bit more personal). For a period of time at our church, my wife and I were going to two different Sunday School classes between services. I’m a creature of habit, and I also love theologically deeper topics—and the class we had originally started attending, and the one I kept going to, was one of those. A new class started and my wife decided to check it out (which she really loved). I let her do recon… but really, I was just comfortable staying put. Let’s be real.

However, what started as an innocent separation turned into us, as a couple, doing two separate things on Sundays—at least for Sunday School. It’s not that unusual, as some others do the same or are split between serving, but eventually it became a bit more… unnatural.

Fast forward (as that’s not the point of this post): we are now together again in Sunday School and loving doing it together. The fruit of our time in the Word has changed from exchanging notes that were hard to explain, to deep-diving into what we heard together. We’re journeying together again, which I think is the way it was always supposed to be for us.

This is where I want to come back to abiding. I think this is often a picture of how we can properly (and wrongfully) abide in our walk with Christ. I wasn’t rejecting my wife or forsaking her—we love each other and are joyfully united through marriage. I think we too can sometimes find ourselves doing the same with Christ. We’re not outright rejecting Him or forsaking Him—but are we walking step in step on this journey together? Or do we stop throughout the day, share notes, and then move on separately?

I speak in human terms, of course—because there is nowhere we can go from the presence of the Lord:

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!”
— Psalm 139:7–8 (ESV)

God and I do not “split and come back together” during our journey. Even when we wander, we are still in the presence of the Lord. And certainly, if we are His child, there is no forsaking to fear—we are secure in our relationship with Christ.

Yet… we can walk as if we are really together, when in reality we’re in the same “church building,” doing two separate things. Or maybe more dangerously—doing our own thing altogether.

Nonetheless, my point here is not about outright rebellion—that’s a whole other topic and a whole lot more concerning.

Granted, even in John 15 we read about what happens to the branches that are not connected to the vine:

“If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
— John 15:6 (ESV)

So I don’t mean to diminish abiding either.

I’m just trying to give perhaps another flawed—but hopefully helpful—example of what it may be like to be in union with Christ, but not fully abiding. Let’s make sure that we as branches are fully attached to the VINE, and one of the ways to do that is to simply journey with Him as closely as we can…

Or as I like to say:

Stay on His Path, Daily.