The Journey

I travel with my work.  Since I started with The Foundation in 2008, I have seen parts of West Virginia that I never had before.  It's a beautiful place, and I love working all through it.

There are times when I travel with The Foundation President, and he drives.  He has a policy -- he does not back track.  We just keep moving forward, and we (with great regularity, if not always efficiency) make it where we are going.  The path is untraveled, but not always short.

In Sunday school a few weeks ago, Marv, who was teaching, said, "Sometimes the route to deliverance is circuitous -- God doesn't take us always on a direct route, because we are not ready for it.  It is not the best way for us."

There are times in our lives when we want to get where we are going, no backtracking, no detours, not side-streets.  We aren't happy where we are, or we are excited to get where we are going, and a circuitous route only offers frustrations.  In our Bible Study class last week, Steve taught about the Walk to Emmaus in the Gospel of Luke.  Why is it that Jesus didn't reveal himself to the two who were traveling at the beginning of the journey?  Why walk all the way to Emmaus, only to have to turn around and go back to Jerusalem?  I think the journey was necessary.  They needed the seven mile walk in order to get where they were going -- spiritually.

Sometimes, we need the walk to get where God needs us to go.  I don't mean to imply that God has us walk through suffering, on purpose, to teach us lessons.  I just mean that sometimes the journey is just as important as the destination.  It's hard to be patient with that, but sometimes it is necessary.

I think that's what I mean; I could still be working my way to getting to where I know what I mean.  :-)