Ask me if I want to go to Europe – and I will answer yes! Ask me if I want to visit my family in Texas – or friends in Colorado and I will also answer yes! Ask me if I want to go vacation in Hawaii and you will hear a most resounding yes!
But the truth is I don’t want to go to any of those places. The truth is I want to be in those places – but I do not want to go there. I do not want to be in the place in-between. I am all about ‘arriving,’ about being there, but not about the journey. The journey is hard. It has bumps and unexpected turns and it isn’t always smooth.
I HATE flying, and as I write this, I am waiting for a plane that will take me home. My mind is fixated on my destination – my home and how very badly I want to be there, not here. Not sitting in an airport while my anxiety level rises, while my heart begins to race and I try to block from my mind all of the devastating scenarios that can occur between here and there that will prevent me from arriving at my destination.
But our lives are not a destination. Our lives are not an arrival – they are a journey. And it is in our journey that God meets us, walks with us, hold us, laughs with us, and cries with us. In our lives, we are always headed somewhere - towards a wedding, the birth of a child, a graduation, a promotion, retirement, we are constantly moving from one place in life to another always on the move from where we were to where we want to be next. Then when we get there, we look around for the next project, the next stage and we are on the move again and we enter another land of in-between.
So while I watch the crew care for the plane that will take me on the first leg of my journey, and as I take deep breaths to calm myself enough so that I don’t run up and down the airplane aisles crying “let me out, let me out!” during the flight, I will focus on the one who ensures my life will be cared for. I will hold fast to the one who has ordained my days. And I will believe that he will care and love my family more than I ever could should he choose to take me home to his house today. And most important of all, I will learn to trust the God who lives with us in the land of the in-between.
But the truth is I don’t want to go to any of those places. The truth is I want to be in those places – but I do not want to go there. I do not want to be in the place in-between. I am all about ‘arriving,’ about being there, but not about the journey. The journey is hard. It has bumps and unexpected turns and it isn’t always smooth.
I HATE flying, and as I write this, I am waiting for a plane that will take me home. My mind is fixated on my destination – my home and how very badly I want to be there, not here. Not sitting in an airport while my anxiety level rises, while my heart begins to race and I try to block from my mind all of the devastating scenarios that can occur between here and there that will prevent me from arriving at my destination.
But our lives are not a destination. Our lives are not an arrival – they are a journey. And it is in our journey that God meets us, walks with us, hold us, laughs with us, and cries with us. In our lives, we are always headed somewhere - towards a wedding, the birth of a child, a graduation, a promotion, retirement, we are constantly moving from one place in life to another always on the move from where we were to where we want to be next. Then when we get there, we look around for the next project, the next stage and we are on the move again and we enter another land of in-between.
So while I watch the crew care for the plane that will take me on the first leg of my journey, and as I take deep breaths to calm myself enough so that I don’t run up and down the airplane aisles crying “let me out, let me out!” during the flight, I will focus on the one who ensures my life will be cared for. I will hold fast to the one who has ordained my days. And I will believe that he will care and love my family more than I ever could should he choose to take me home to his house today. And most important of all, I will learn to trust the God who lives with us in the land of the in-between.
2 comments:
I also am an impatient person and do not like the 'going' yet love the 'being'. I loved this sentence, "But our lives are not a destination. Our lives are not an arrival – they are a journey. And it is in our journey that God meets us, walks with us, hold us, laughs with us, and cries with us."
We need to enjoy the journey!
"In our lives, we are always headed somewhere - towards a wedding, the birth of a child, a graduation, a promotion, retirement, we are constantly moving from one place in life to another always on the move from where we were to where we want to be next." I have often thought of this and have found the hardest place to be is the in between, too. Journeys seem daunting, but as you mentioned we have Him to Journey with. Thanks for the reminder that He is walking with me through life.
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