The journey vs the destination

Over the weekend sometime I had this thought come through my head.  The journey is more important that the destination.  As I sat there and thought about it for a while I begin to wonder if that is what Christ really meant when He said we can have eternal life.

 Most people when they hear eternal life believe it has to do with living forever.  In a way it does, but really when studying the way it was used in the Greek it meant to have life to to the fullest.  Then if you think about the rest of Christ's life and all of Paul's life, you can really see how they didn't focus on the destination of their journey so much as the journey itself.

I admit, I tend to be one who has a destination in mind and really want to get there so that I can "complete" whatever it is that I am doing.  I love to finish the task, the job, or the part of the meal I am currently working on.  I always feel a since of accomplishment.

As I think back though, some of the greatest times of my life have been when I took time to enjoy the journey.  For instance, a couple years ago my wife and I decided we were going to go to South Dakota for our anniversary to see Mt. Rushmore.  Then my wife suggested we go a different route than others might take and stay off the interstate.  We drove the whole way there and the whole way back spending less than 45 min total on the interstate.  We saw a lot of really cool things along the way that had we used the interstate we would have missed.  It was a great experience.  One of the best vacations I have ever had.  I had taken time to enjoy the journey rather than rushing to the destination.

I wonder how often I really do that in life too.  I get so focused on the destination of what I am doing or trying to accomplish that I miss the journey itself and who God is wanting me to meet or what God is wanting me to experience along the way. I even tend to complain about parts of the journey....asking God "are we almost there yet" as if I am still a little kid.

Maybe I am the only one that deals with this, but I imagine I am not.  Have you ever considered that you are on a journey?  Could that be why so many people struggle with where they are on life (sometimes me included), because we feel like we are at a destination, rather than remembering we are in the midst of a larger journey?  We talk about our walk with Christ and how we are growing in that aspect, but shouldn't that walk be intertwined with our journey through life?



Want to see a few things we saw on our trip to South Dakota?  Check them out here, here, and here.