I got born again again in form two. Now, the two ‘agains’ are not a mistake. It was the second time I was receiving Christ. So when I accepted him a second time and devoted myself to walking with him I realized something; I had to walk with people. I had to become vulnerable to a bunch of people whom we agree with in faith, and be accountable to them.

You see, when a wolf wants to attack a sheep it first makes sure the sheep is alone. It’s hard for it to attack a flock of sheep when they are together. It can only strike when a sheep has become a lone ranger. This is it even in the Christian walk.

I’ve enjoyed the benefits of walking with friends whom we are like-minded. These are people who know me so well, they can almost read my mind. I have laid my heart bare before them, and let them know my secrets. This has been very helpful especially in my walk of purity.

Today morning we happened to have a talk with an older man in faith, together with a bunch of friends from the Christian Union. He passionately shared his life with us and from the whole conversation I got the weight at which he spoke of accountability. Accountability with older people who’ve gone before and accountability with each other.

You see, your accountability partners are the best people to get you back to reality when sin has invaded or when your convictions have faded. They are the people who know you so well, they can tell when you are not walking in the right way. They agree with you in faith, and therefore most of the times their advice will resound God’s will.

Some Christians prefer to be lone rangers. You know those secrets that are within your heart, and not even a single person knows about them? Sometimes you struggle with sin but you can’t bring yourself to sharing with brethren. That’s why the enemy knows how to strike. He’ll convince you that when you commit that sin no one will know. Before you even know it you’ll be fallen.

Getting such close allies who will faithfully walk with you is hard, I admit. Like your trust and patience will be tested to the limits. You’ll probably get hurt at some point. There are days you’ll want to be alone with only Jesus. But this is the nature of human relationships, due to imperfection. We therefore have to rise above those challenges. We have to be deliberate in this.

I have a bunch of ladies that I walk with. Some from high school, others from a discipleship program I went to, others from the Christian Union in campus and some are classmates. We didn’t become close instantly. It was during our service that we discovered we had similar convictions in faith, and we agreed in a lot of things. Our walking together and keeping each other accountable was informed by the common faith we had. I made a deliberate choice to lay bare my heart to them even in the petty issues. They are the people who know about issues like a crush I have, the situation back at home, my financial status or how am doing in my academics. They rebuke me, encourage me, laugh with me and together we exhort each other.

I have been severally hurt, to a point of withdrawing. But I have trusted God for healing and though we may not have gone back to a close friendship with the parties involved, we have remained friends. I treasure these friends!

However, there’s always the temptation to keep opposite gender friends close. Whereas this is not out rightly wrong, it is dangerous. When boundaries are not drawn there is the risk of having emotional entanglements. I don’t need to emphasize the danger of this!

I’ve also deliberately chosen to walk with older couples. You see, these are the people who’ve gone before. They are more experienced in life. They have the wisdom of walking in certain paths. And so they are very resourceful. Every Christian youth needs such. Again you have to make a deliberate choice to be vulnerable to them, so that you can learn from their lives.

Accountability is very key in every Christian’s life. As I began by saying, lone rangers are a soft target of the wolf, who is the enemy in this case. Therefore chose people whom you can walk with!