I'm beginning a new series of posts on companionship and the spiritual journey. Here's the first of a handful of coming posts. Please share them with those you consider companions on your journey into the fullness of God.

No one can take this journey for you. The journey into the fullness of God is yours—start to finish. Setting out has energized you, and following the Light you’ve glimpsed is the one thing you know you must do. To some degree you may fear this journey into the unknown, but you fear more staying put, staying where you were, stuck in the rut that’s been your life up till now.

The journey toward God is yours to take, but that doesn’t mean you have to walk it alone, nor should you.

It’s true, some have made this journey into union with the Beloved by walking a solitary path. Monastics and hermits in every spiritual tradition are witnesses to the way of utter renunciation. By liberating themselves from just about everything, even human relationships, they’ve walked a long and grueling ascent into the bliss of the unmediated presence of the Divine.

But it’s equally true that the deserts and mountaintops also own the bones of so many more who’ve tried this lonely path and failed. Frankly, most of us need companions along the way—for this journey is not entirely safe, nor is it easy.

Companions aren’t a mere crutch for us who are made of lesser stuff than those spiritual elites.

No, companionship’s part and parcel of the very nature of God.

To be continued . . .