It is an ancient cliché that says we should enjoy the trip, the journey. The idea is to not just focus on the start and the destination, but to pay attention to what passes before and around us while we are on the way to wherever we are going.
As kids especially, we were always eager to get where we were headed. We were constantly asking our parents, “Are we there yet?”, “How much longer?”, usually with a whine in our voice. Our parents, usually with patience that eventually started to thin, would come up with some answer or other. In an effort to distract us, they would start pointing out different sights that we passed, or sometimes would come up with a game of some kind that passed the time until we either arrived or started the inevitable questions again. Looking at the sights along the roadsides was something that parents did, not us kids. As the years passed and we developed outside interests, we might have started noticing the sights that didn’t focus on us.
As adults, we really aren’t all that different from what we were as kids. We are still in a hurry to get where we are going, ignoring everything that surrounds us as we pass through life. The other cliché of “Take time to stop and smell the roses” was great advice but is largely ignored today. If we aren’t running just as fast as we can, we are just certain that life is going to pass us by, that we are going to miss out on an opportunity of some kind or other, that big promotion, or the sale we have been awaiting.
There is a wonderful world out there, one that God created for us to enjoy. Whether it is nature, animal, vegetable, or mineral, it is out there for us to experience. Too often, we have to be forced to slow down, either by bad health, or some other circumstance that befalls us. Or, maybe we move into the role that our parents once held, of trying to point out to our kids the world that is around them.
Part of the journey we are traveling has to do with God and his plans for us. The quick way is to try to zip our way along. We limit our trip to hurrying to church on Sunday, spending that hour listening to someone tell us about him and how he is supposed to fit into our life. Then we hurry off to play, watch TV, go shopping, work, or do something else. We spend an hour with God and 167 hours each week with something or someone else. God deserves far more than that. We need to slow down and take notice of what he has given us. I am not talking just of taking note of our surroundings, but of taking note of the love that God has for us. He has given us his words and instructions. He has provided men and women whom he has blessed in a special way that enables them to lead us down a path which leads us to spend the rest of eternity with him. In return, he asks that we get to know him better, to take the time he has given us to study, read, and listen. He wants us to be with him when our time comes to leave here. Since we are going to be there for the rest of timelessness, doesn’t it make sense to slow down and get to know him better?
We have a journey to take here in this life, one that leads us to a wonderfully beautiful destination. Are you going to just rush through it focusing on only the surrounding wonders, or are you going to spend time getting to know the One who planned the journey?
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