A Shared Journey

I love the word Journey. It sounds like there is so much adventure involved. The Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Journey of Mankind, and so on. I've been thinking about the word a lot lately. Now, I'm the kind of person that focuses more on the destination. I wish I didn't. Whenever I go somewhere, say I'm driving to Indianapolis or something, I always try to make good time, go about 10 over the speed limit, drown the time out with crazy-loud music, just simply killing time to get to my destination. Even when I go on bike rides, I most often think about the destination, think about how much quicker I could get there if I just peddled a little bit faster. I think that most of us think this way; we are so concentrated on the destination that we forget to enjoy the journey. Why do we think like this? Why do we always want to make good time? Why can't we see the things around us, take it in, turn off the music, hear the sounds, see the sights, make the best of the time that we are trying to waste?

I think that this could also apply to our lives. Especially to Christians' lives. Many Christians are so focused on their destination, whether they are bound for heaven or hell, that they forget that God wants us to experience our journey called life. We are here to live, not just participate in mind-numbing activities, waiting for an end. We do things like watch TV for hours on end, sleep 12 hours a night (I am 100% guilty of that), go to work everyday just to come home, go to bed, and wait to go back to work the next morning. As a young Christian, I used to think that life is pointless when I could just die now and go somewhere far better (I'm not saying I was suicidal, just impatiently waiting). When I went to Vermont with some people from my church, it really opened my eyes when we talked about life and what it means to live.

We are the God's gardeners. What do gardeners do? Gardeners ornament gardens. To ornament means to lend grace or beauty. Our garden is this earth. Gods garden is this earth. We need to lend grace and beauty to this earth, make it fit for God. You can't do that by inactively waiting to die. This is our journey. This is what God wants, to experience the journey of life. I hope this makes sense. It does in my head.