Our culture is definitely a destination culture.
We work to build something for ourselves and live to get somewhere. For the most part, we all want the destination and for many, they know that means there will be difficulties in getting there.
I see this same mindset in the church.
We ask God for direction but what we really want is for everything to be better, fixed or look the way we think it should look. The journey is important and builds us to be ready for the destination ahead of us.
5 Minutes
Whenever I talk to people about this topic I always ask them the same thing. Think of your favorite movie and imagine that all you had was the first 5 minutes and the last 5 minutes; everything else is no longer there.
No matter what movie it is, I can guarantee it’s not nearly as deep and impacting of a story without what is in between the beginning and the end. For some movies, it might not even make sense without the story in between.
Our approach to the church and God is no different. We ask for what we can see down the road and many times what we get is an arrow pointing us in a direction; or the faith to take a step in any direction when there are no arrows.We ask God for direction but what we really want is for everything to be better, fixed or look the way we think it should look. The journey is important and builds us to be ready for the destination ahead of us.
The Journey In Between
The journey in between the destination is where our story is built. It’s the stuff we tell our friends about and it’s the part that inspires us to greater things.
It’s no different with the church.
The church sometimes looks like a broken mess that can be incredibly ugly. But, that ugliness is a result of the church being filled with many broken people on a journey to being restored. If you look hard enough you just might see under that ugly mask is a beautiful story of redemption still being written.
My point is let’s remember the journey and focus on that. However, that looks in your life. It could be in relation to your job, family, relationships or even the church. Remember the journey is where the story is and while every step is small each one takes us a little closer to that destination we all look for.
Keep stepping my friends.
