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.’

God’s Unique Plan for Every One of Us

Have you ever wondered how you got to where you are now from where you were years ago, even as a child or a young person? The course of life is never what we expect, and often we encounter twists and turns we could never have imagined. If you’ll indulge me briefly, I’d like to use myself as an example.

 

I’ve often thought that if I were to write a book about the path my life has taken, I’d give it the title, “You Can’t Get There from Here.” Growing up in New Jersey, I headed southwest to attend a college in Houston, Texas. At the time I had no plans of pursuing a writing career but was fortunate to have an English instructor who thought differently. She offered encouragement, saying she saw promise in me as a writer and even urged me to enter an essay contest, which I happened to win.

 

That prompted me to change my major to English. However, envisioning having to poetically ponder flowers and trees or study the likes of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Lord Byron, I determined instead to find a school that offered a strong journalism curriculum. That made Columbus, Ohio the next stop on my itinerary.

 

Journalism and I fit together like the proverbial hand in glove; two professors in particular impressed upon me the art of newswriting along with the virtues of objectivity, fairness and balanced reporting. (That was before modern journalists decided such things aren’t necessary.) I took only one class in photojournalism as an undergrad, but as a graduate teaching assistant my assignment was to teach…photojournalism. That year I learned as much about the craft as the students I was teaching to load raw film into canisters, process exposed film, print photos and master various skills in those bygone days before digital cameras.

 

Upon graduating, my intention to get my first job on a metropolitan daily newspaper was cast aside. My only job offer came from a community newspaper in a Columbus suburb. So, instead of being pigeon-holed as a copy editor, police beat reporter or even an obituary writer, my responsibilities as editor were wide-ranging. They included covering city government, local schools and the school board, high school sports and the community theater, writing editorials, columns and features, doing engagement and wedding announcements, obituaries – and lots of photography.

 

Did I mention I met my wife and we started our family together there?

 

That diverse experience opened doors for other opportunities, including a brief stint on a suburban daily newspaper, back to Houston to work as editor of a much larger community newspaper. There I gained experience not only on the editorial side but also the business side of publishing a newspaper, which prepared me for subsequent ministry roles in the business and professional world after we moved to Chattanooga.

 

Most important, God used each stop to advance my spiritual pilgrimage, which ultimately has made all the difference in my becoming – and continuing to become – the person I am today. Early in my walk with Jesus Christ, I came across a passage that seemed to sum up my life’s meandering course: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

 

I could not have planned out the ways God would direct me. In fact, I’m glad I couldn’t because my life certainly wouldn’t have turned out as it has. Another verse I have embraced is Jeremiah 29:11, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’” 

 

A fulfilling life, I’ve learned, is not a passive one, sitting on a stump waiting for things to happen. We have to take initiative when opportunities present themselves, but ultimately the outcome rests in the Lord’s hands. Many times I thought I knew what needed to happen, and when it didn’t, I felt disappointment, even discouragement. But in retrospect, I came to appreciate the truth of Romans 8:28, “and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Recovery groups often use the so-called “serenity prayer” to encourage participants, but in a real sense, it encapsulates a healthy way to view and understand our lives as they unfold: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” We have our part; God has His, and together we can create a life that brings us joy and gives Him much glory. 

Drawing Straight Lines With Crooked Sticks

Reviewing the paths that many of our lives have taken, you could probably summarize them by saying, “You can’t get there from here. You have to go somewhere else first.”

 

Looking at my own life, it seems a lot like a traveler whose GPS has gone haywire. Born overseas while my father was serving in the U.S. Army, I spent most of my childhood in New Jersey. My college years took me first to Texas, and then Ohio. My career as a journalist also followed a somewhat erratic path, beginning in Ohio, followed by a brief sojourn in Pennsylvania, back to Ohio, then Texas, and finally, Tennessee.

 

If plotted on a map, this would resemble an extremely crooked stick. And my spiritual pilgrimage has been just as “crooked” as my life’s path. But from the God’s point of view, I believe it looks pretty much like a straight path, proceeding exactly as He planned. 

 

Martin Luther said, “God can draw straight lines with crooked sticks.” Indeed He does. There are myriad examples we could choose from, but among those that come to my mind are two of the world’s greatest mass evangelists, Billy Sunday and Billy Graham. During the 1880s, Sunday compiled a reasonably successful eight-year major league baseball career; for most of that time he wouldn’t have been voted “most likely to become known as a winner of souls for God.” 

 

But then the Lord got a hold of him. Several years after committing his life to Jesus Christ, Sunday left baseball and began a career as a itinerant evangelist, long before the advent of electronic sound systems. His much-celebrated career spanned about four decades, touching countless lives.

 

Graham was considered Sunday’s successor, although well into his young adulthood such an idea never crossed his mind. In fact, the story is told that when Graham was about 12 years old, a group of Christian businessmen gathered at the farm of his father, William Franklin Graham, to pray for God to “raise up a man who would take the Gospel to all the world and turn people in far places to Christ.” 

 

Upon hearing of the men who had assembled, young Graham reportedly said, “I wonder what those fanatics are doing here.” And yet, as a young man he had a life-changing encounter with Jesus and he became one of “those fanatics.” During his lifetime Graham spoke the saving message of Christ to millions around the globe – in person, over the radio and on TV.

 

The Bible, in its unvarnished candor, presents dozens of examples of “crooked sticks” the Lord has used to accomplish grand things. One of them was Jacob (later renamed Israel), who despite being a schemer and a conniver became patriarch for the nation of people named after him. Jonah, a petulant prophet, was called to preach to people in the pagan city of Nineveh. However, he chose instead to flee and found his means of transportation shifting from a ship to a huge fish. In time, the Ninevites did get the message from the reluctant evangelist and a citywide revival resulted.  

 

King David, described as “a man after God’s own heart” in the Scriptures, had more than his share of sinful detours. Yet he has been intimately identified with the Jews through the centuries, and from his pen we have a wonderful collection of writings in the Psalms. His son, Solomon, started his reign as king in a most humble manner, and his wisdom was unparalleled. He contributed much to the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, but his path became more crooked as time went on and he failed to finish particularly well.

 

In the New Testament we meet a number of other “crooked sticks. There’s Simon, whom Jesus renamed Peter; despite his impulsive nature he became a pillar of the early Church, even writing two of the Bible’s epistles. Matthew, who had betrayed his fellow Jews as a tax collector, also was selected to be one of Christ’s unlikely disciples. What we know most about Matthew’s life after becoming a follower of Jesus is that God chose him to be the author of one of the four gospels. 

 

And we can’t overlook Saul, the zealous Pharisee and persecutor of followers of Jesus, fully convinced that what he was doing was right. After his Damascus road encounter with the Lord, however, Saul was given a new name, Paul, and spent the remainder of his life proclaiming Christ to anyone who would listen, despite many hardships. All amazing stories of how God through the centuries has used some very curious, crooked-path people to accomplish His purposes.

 

Personal experience, along with learning the faith stories of many other people, have taught me the course God has for us is rarely a direct one. Maybe that’s why Proverbs 3:5-6 admonishes us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” 

 

Have you ever found yourself wondering why your life has taken an unexpected detour? Maybe more than a few? They’re often God’s way of saying, “Don’t try to figure it out. The course I’ve put you on will take you exactly where I want you to go.”

 

The key for us, as crooked, broken people trying to find our way through lives of uncertainty, is simply to trust rather than wearing ourselves out trying to comprehend what the Lord is doing or why He’s taking us where He chooses. As we’re promised in another passage from Proverbs, "I will guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble" (Proverbs 4:11-12). He knows the way.

Photographic Memories

Swans at Barnsley Gardens near Atlanta provide a "Kodak moment."

When I was young, if someone kept staring at you for an inordinate amount of time, we’d say something like, “Take a picture – it lasts longer.” It was a snide way of telling someone to mind their own business, but there’s truth in that old rebuke.

Whenever we travel to interesting places I’m rarely without my camera, Next to writing, photography is my second-favorite activity, but taking photos of sights we see is more than a simple hobby. As the saying goes, if I take a picture then the experience lasts longer.

Last year we did a fair amount of traveling and I have hundreds of photos to prove it. No, we didn’t go to exotic venues like Hawaii, Alaska, Europe or Asia, but I have photographic evidence to prove there are many visual delights in places like Orlando, Florida (and not just Walt Disney World), Asheville, N.C., Columbus, Ohio (yes, the land of the Buckeyes), Atlanta, and even Nebraska.

Fireworks at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom
leave an indelible memory on visitors.

Long after we’ve returned from our trips, I can review my collection of photos from those times and relive some of our experiences, using them to jog my memory. As I review images from those trips I also can take note of details I might have missed when I saw them originally.

When I find myself caught in the humdrum tedium of daily work and responsibilities, it’s fun to remind myself of special times my family and I have enjoyed as we've ventured outside the mundane moments of everyday life.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could do something similar along our individual spiritual journeys? Actually we can, although not by using a digital camera or smart phone camera. We have to rely on our memories, the mental images of key moments in our lives when God intervened in both ordinary and extraordinary ways.

It’s important to make a point to do this regularly because if we don’t, we fall into the trap of the ancient Israelites when they would forget their miraculous deliverance from Egypt and start asking God, “What have You done for us lately?”

After witnessing the numerous plagues God brought upon the Egyptians – none of which affected the people of Israel – they were served an eviction notice by the frustrated Pharaoh. Then, when Egyptian forces pursued the Israelites after Pharaoh had yet another change of heart, God parted the Red Sea and led Moses and the men, women and children of Israel to the safety of the opposite shore.

As they traveled, whenever the Israelites grew thirsty or hungry, God made miraculous provision for them. Still, their “photographic” memories often failed them. “The Israelites said to (Moses and Aaron), ‘If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into the desert to starve…” (Exodus 16:3). Later they grumbled, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” (Exodus 17:3).

Even though the Lord brought both quail and manna for the Israelites to eat, they still found reasons to complain. Instead of “don’t worry, be happy,” their theme song was “don’t be happy, be worried.” Maybe it would have helped if they had been able to look at Kodak scrapbooks of the times when God bailed them out, but they chose instead to forget what He had done. Instead, they sugarcoated their centuries of enslavement in Egypt and longed for them as if they were “the good old days.”

Who could guess these pandas displayed at
the Grove Park Inn are made of gingerbread?

Don’t we do that sometimes? We pray and God answers, often in ways far beyond anything we could have hoped and imagined. Yet months or weeks or even days later, we fret and worry, acting as if God had never done a single kind thing for us.

So I make a point of reminding myself of wonderful things He has done. Can you remember the first time you sensed God is really there? Was there a special moment – perhaps in church, at a spiritual retreat, even an in-depth conversation with a friend – when God revealed Himself and His truth in a way He had not done before?

Has there been a time when a family member or friend was in dire straits and you prayed for them, clueless about how God could possibly resolve the crisis – and yet He did? Was there a personal struggle you were dealing with, possibly involving finances or illness, and you turned to God only as a last resort – and yet He came through in an amazing way?

One of the wonderful things about the Bible is the honesty of its writers. They weren’t much different from us. For instance, the psalmist writes, “I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted” (Psalm 77:1-2). Does this sound like anything you’ve experienced?

How did the author of this psalm find comfort? He remembered. “I will remember the deeds of the Lord, yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds” (Psalm 77:11-12).

The psalm writer might not have had a handy stack of photos to sift through, but his vivid memories – both from his own life and from those of his people – served as reminders, helping him to remember and continue to trust in God’s faithful presence and provision.

Is it time that you pulled some out of the “photos” from your spiritual journey, reminding yourself of what the Lord has done in your life, perhaps even some things you haven’t thought about for a long time? As the psalmist urges us – remember.

What the ‘Church’ Should Look Like (Part 1)

This church in Veszprem, Hungary was one
of many I saw in 1997 that looked beautiful
and stately, but was rarely used.

The institutional church receives lots of flak these days, and in some respects justifiably so. Nonbelievers perceive it as pompous, self-righteous, rigid, irrelevant. Even for those that regularly attend churches, it can seem distant, self-indulgent, out of touch, more focused on programs than people’s needs.

In my spiritual journey I’ve been involved with more than a half-dozen denominations, a dozen congregations, and held leadership and teaching roles in some. I’m not a church-hopper, but geographic moves and periodic urgings to seek a new “home” have given me insights into this unique, universal, spiritual family we call “the Church.”

One of the main problems, as I see it, is many churches act more like organizations than what the Bible says they should be – an organism. In 1 Corinthians 12:12 the apostle Paul describes the Church as “a unit, although it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body.”

European churches present a unique
beauty, but often, as in American
congregations, vitality is sorely lacking.

This human body metaphor suggests one of the main functions I think a church should serve. (Later this week I’ll look at another.) Joining a local congregation should be like being admitted to a hospital.  When you’re ill and in need of urgent care, you don’t hear the hospital staff saying, “Come back later when you’re feeling better. We don’t want sick people in here.” Of course not.

Too often, however, people attending church feel they must act like they have it all together, like they truly “couldn’t be better.” In fact, every one of us is hurting in some way – carrying baggage from earlier in life, struggling with behavior patterns we can’t control, suffering from broken relationships. And most often, feeling apart from a healthy, growing relationship with the Creator.

Instead of being able to enter, pain and all, and openly share our “symptoms,” too often we feel the need to put on Sunday smiles – our happy masks – and disguise the hurt within.

The hospital comparison of apt, too, because typically when admitted for treatment it takes a while for the medical staff to diagnose the problem and identify the proper course of treatment. This is true spiritually as well. Romans 3:23 reminds us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So recognizing we’re all suffering from spiritual disease is simple; determining how to remedy strongholds of sin is more difficult.

Yes, the Church today – particularly in America – has many flaws. And as a member of the family, I have the right to admit that. But there’s still something special, unique about being a part of a body of believers sharing the same faith in Jesus, the one who declared, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). I know that sounds narrow, certainly not very “tolerant.” But He said it, not me.

Later this week, I’ll propose something else an effective church should look like.