Destination...

Week 22:

James 4:13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”

Why is it that we look at our life as destination that is to be reached? “If I just get this job…” “If I just accomplish this task…” “If I make this amount of money…” “If I can just reach this place in my life spiritually…” There are so many other statements that we make (both vocally and internally), these are just some examples. I tend to catch myself working to reach a destination in my life thinking that once I have…problems will cease, life will get easier, and God will be pleased. But life does not work that way, does it?

One thing I have to keep reminding myself is…life is a journey. As long as I am living on this earth, I am not going to “arrive”. I am on a continued path toward a stronger faith, a transformed life, and drawing closer to God. Just because I have hit a high point spiritually, does not mean I have it all figured out. Around the corner is another challenge, another goal to reach, and/or an even deeper relationship with God.  

At times, living out my faith becomes tiresome. The spiritual battles with the evil one and his deceptions are continual. The battles with my own flesh and its sinful desires continue. Maintaining relationships with those around me take continual work. The improvement of my personal transformation work is on-going.

I believe that my society has deceived me to some degree. I have mentioned before that our “instant” culture has me wanting everything now. Yet, God does not work on an instant answer transformation process. I also notice that at times I live parts of my life like a movie. The problem with that is, a movie ends in an hour or two, and usually ends positive. Life is not a movie. Life is on-going and is not always positive. If I live life instantly, and like a movie, I live in a fantasy world…not in reality. Furthermore, when I live life this way, I live with a lot of disappointment.

This does not mean I live life without hope. I just have to realize that life is a journey; an on-going process. God is not finished with what His plans are for me yet. I am reminded of Moses and how long God spent preparing him to lead Israel out of Egypt. Until the day Moses died, he was on a journey with God. I have already seen the fruits of God’s work in me and I am not as old as Moses was. I know God still has plans for my life.

I realized that maybe the destination I seek is the one promised me when my life ends or when Jesus returns. I just tend to keep looking at the wrong destination. My home is not here. While I am here, I am to walk this journey with God. I am to see where He takes me and whom I encounter. I am to look at where He is working and join Him. But written in to my being is this longing for a final destination, the one after my physical body is done. However that is supposed to look, I know I will reach it eventually. Until then, my journey continues.

Questions/challenges:
1. In what ways have you lived your life as if to reach a destination?
2. What disappointments have you faced?
3. Looking back, what has God been teaching you?
4. What is keeping you from seeing life as a journey?
5. This week, reflect and write down some of your destinations you have reached. Note what God has done. How are these destinations a part of your bigger journey?

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