On Our Spiritual Journey, We Never ‘Arrive’

Life isn't a destination, but a journey of one stage after another.

Any parent going on a road trip with young children knows this question: “Are we there yet?” Most kids have little appreciation for the journey. All they care about is when they’ll reach the destination. And who can blame them? With all their nervous energy and short attention spans, sitting in a car for hours can’t be their idea of fun. (It’s been a long time since I was a kid, but spending hours in a car isn’t my cup of tea anymore either.) 

However, you don’t have to be a young person to prioritize the arrival point over the time and effort required to get there. The problem is, once we reach the “destination” we usually realize it’s merely the jumping off point for the next stage of the journey.

 

We plod through our elementary, middle and high school years, then the ‘finish line’ finally comes into view – graduation day. Hooray, we’ve arrived! But then there’s college or a trade school or the military, and we realize there’s another part to the journey. When we reach the end of that stage, the supposed ‘destination,’ to our surprise there’s another part to the journey called “career.”

 

The same applies to getting married. We find ‘The One’ and channel our energies toward the wedding day. That’s the destination, right? ‘We’ve arrived!’ But almost as soon as vows are exchanged, the reception is held, and the honeymoon takes place, a new stage in the journey appears. It’s called marriage, where bliss is soon balanced by things like work, bills, children, and everything else that makes up daily life. 

 

Our destination, it seems, no matter what stage of life we find ourselves in, turns into a moving target. We never really arrive. The journey continues until we take our final breath.

 

Nowhere is this more evident than in our spiritual journey. I think back to my early days as a follower of Christ. I was studying the Bible, memorizing verses, going to church regularly, reading Christian books, listening to messages by prominent evangelical leaders, attending conferences, and doing whatever else I could think of to grow spiritually. My ‘destination,’ I thought, was to attain spiritual maturity.

 

I remember learning some foundational biblical truth and thinking, ‘That’s it! Now I’ve got it,’ thinking I’d discovered the secret sauce to being a godly person. But soon afterward I’d realize, ‘Nope, not yet.’ There was more to be learned, much more, and a great deal more to be experienced – joys and victories, trials and tribulations. Whenever I asked, “Am I there yet?” the answer was an emphatic, “No!”

 

The same holds true for the so-called ‘heroes’ of the Bible. There are so many examples we could cite, but let’s consider just two. Moses had been used by God to deliver the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. God had performed many miracles through him, not the least of which was the parting of the Red Sea so the people of Israel could escape pursuing Egyptians. 

 

Then God entrusted Moses with the Ten Commandments after meeting with him exclusively on Mt. Sinai, and when he came down his face was shining with the “shekinah glory” of God. Certainly this guy could have felt that he had arrived. But aggravated by the impatient Israelites, Moses threw a couple of temper tantrums. The last was particularly problematic.

 

The people had been traveling for a long time and supplies were dwindling. “Now there was no water in the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, ‘…Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place. It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!’….” The ever-complaining Israelites weren’t a happy lot.

 

In response, God instructed the Israelite leader to take his staff and with his brother Aaron, to gather the Israelites together. Then Moses was to speak to a specific rock nearby and it would pour out water for them. But instead, he struck the rock twice with his staff. Water did gush out of it for everyone to drink, but clearly Mr. M had not followed instructions. He definitely had not ‘arrived’ spiritually, despite the great responsibility he had carried.

 

God’s response was immediate. “Because you did not trust in Me enough to honor Me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Numbers 20:2-12). As the Scriptures later tell us, Moses was permitted to climb a mountain and peer into the Promised Land, but it was his protégé Joshua who would lead the Israelites into it.

 

A second great example is the apostle Paul, who also had been used in wondrous ways by the Lord. But perhaps he was more honest in his self-appraisal. He had been a bold witness for Jesus Christ, had been a part of glorious miracles, and had been delivered from many forms of adversity and strong opposition. Surely he had arrived spiritually, right?

 

And yet, while in prison, he reviewed his life and ministry in a letter to believers in ancient Philippi. He concluded, “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me…. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:10-14).

 

If this was true for Paul, it’s certainly true for each of us. Our spiritual journey is lifelong. Each morning is a reminder that we’re not “there yet.” Our destination is to be “called heavenward in Christ Jesus,” but until then we’re to persevere with the work has prepared for us to do, recognizing that we haven’t ‘arrived.’