Enjoy Your Journey

The open highway has always had a fascination for me, even as a child. Looking out the back window of Dad’s Plymouth as we sped along the road on our way to the Black Hills for a summer vacation was so exciting! Sometimes I think the process of getting there was more exciting than the destination.

For instance, passing a farm I could imagine about the people living there. Did they have children, a horse to ride, where did they go to school?

It also gave me time to daydream about the latest book I was reading. Usually I checked out books especially about California since my Grandma had always wanted to visit California. She planted California poppies in her yard every summer and she had a big picture from Life magazine of the Golden Gate Bridge on her kitchen wall, often saying to me, “Someday you must go to California and see it for me.” Yes, Grandma, I have seen California from one border to the other and you would have liked it.

I love the planning, reading about the country and learning about the culture we will be visiting. I love the process of deciding the best way to get there, wherever “there” is. Do we fly or take a boat, or drive the car or ride a train? I think God is a lot like that too. He seems to be interested in the decisions we make on our way to our final destination. Throughout the Bible we see examples of people who made wise or unwise decisions about their lives. If God were only interested in their final destination He could have simply stated whether they ended up in heaven or hell and shortened the Bible by about 90%. But no, God wanted us to have examples of the good, the bad and the ugly to show us how best to live.

It seems like the small decisions I make on this journey called life, in the “non events” are what make a difference in the processes of my life. For instance, a few months ago I was invited to go to lunch (a non-event, I do eat lunch every day) with someone I had never met. I almost did not go as I was very busy and contented with my life. And that first lunch is turning out to be a pivotal point in my life.

But I can only see that in retrospect. It is in the small decisions, the non-events of life that our lives are shaped. We must make sure we are walking and living according to wisdom.

Proverbs 3:13 sums it up this way. “Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding for his journey.”

Prayer: Father, I ask for wisdom from You for the decisions on my journey through life. May the decisions I make be examples to others who may not know You. Amen .