Hello followers of Christ.
I want to talk to you today about destination versus journey.
I believe as humans we get marred in the vision of our destination, and we let that snapshot we take of ourselves guide our feelings and rule our decisions.
We all want a great snapshot of our lives, the picture of who we are in our mind. We want to wake up in the morning, look at our lives and say, “Wow … I really like where I am in life. I have it all.” But how many times do we wake up and say, “Wow … my life sucks. I have nothing.”
Believe me, I know you do this because for the past few years I have fallen into this trap and I have done it more than I care to admit. I mean, seriously, look at my “destination” score below. And when I score, I don’t score with a 10, because the only perfect 10 score goes to the only perfect Jesus Christ. He is the only one who gets a 10.
So, here we go:
Age: 60
Marital Status: Divorced
Number of children: 0
Income level: 2
Goals achieved: 5
Health: 8-9
This gives me an overall destination score of about a 5. Pretty bleak … if I let that picture dominate my brain. And when I do focus on this picture, I don’t focus on the journey score, and when we fail to focus on the journey score is when we lose.
Below is the picture I want to focus on.
The picture on the left is me a few years ago and on the right, me a few months ago. Smiling from six to 60.
The Lord has been waking me out of deep sleeps lately and telling me things. It happened last week and I wrote about it on my private Bible study page. Perhaps one day I will post it here. But this morning He woke me up again and the revelation I had was that although my destination score might be a 5 and not what I would like in life, my journey score is a solid 8 because 8 tenths of my days are happy. Yes, overall in my life, even when circumstances are not ideal, I have been happy. Maybe not jumping up and down for joy, but I do not live a life of drudgery, or allow myself to remain for more than a day or two in drudgery, even when my checkbook states a balance of $35.
We all have received special blessings from the Lord. Sometimes we do not even recognize those blessings. I was blessed with cheerfulness, and I am even a cheerful giver, and when I am drab and crabby, it is because I am looking at my destination score and not my journey score. For instance, for 14 years I worked in a town I did not want to work in, at a newspaper I did not want to work at, but did the people around me know that? No. Why? Because I am cheerful and even though I did not like where I was or who I was working for, I met amazing people and I wrote amazing stories that I could have never written if I were working where I wanted to work and for whom I wanted to work.
Those amazing people and amazing stories have contributed to my cheerfulness and that cheerfulness helps me maintain a journey score of an 8 out of 9.
When 8 tenths of my days are happy, I best stop complaining about the destination because the sooner I stop focusing on my disappointing destination score the sooner that score will improve. And the same goes for everyone of you who are reading this message. Some of you might have what seems an amazing destination score and be lacking in the journey score due to a life of never satisfied until achievement is met, and guess what? You are not Jesus and you will never reach full achievement so lighten up on yourself. Seek and enjoy your blessings at hand, because that is the only road to peace.
As the old saying goes, stop looking a gift horse in the mouth. Everyone has received blessings from the Lord and when we focus on those blessings is when we are most happy. Even when I have $35 to my name, and that could be at any given time, I know that I can rely on my blessing of cheerfulness and go out and be a blessing to someone else just with a smile. Me making you smile makes me smile more. It’s a win-win to take a hold of your blessings.
So, take a break from destination seeking and seek your journey. Ask yourself what percentage of your days are happy? And when you are not happy, why is that?
It might be time to change your focus. Seek through the knowledge of Christ what your blessings are and then run with them. This will bring you happiness and make your journey, which is all that really matters, your true destination.
P.S. The featured photo for this story, the beautiful lake and mountains, is where my future home destination lies. Closest place to heaven that I know. Say a prayer for me, as I inch my way each day closer to that place of peace.
Blessings to all …
