The process, the journey, this should be the focus. I heard several different times today about how important it is to focus on the journey not the destination. I have found this difficult as a Seventh-day Adventist, who has, as young as I can remember, thought about second coming, heaven and all things at the end of the journey. Today as I heard the idea that it needs to be about the journey, I asked myself how or if that should play into my Adventist beliefs. After all eschatology has been a huge primary focus of my church. We find it important for everyone to know what the end, will be. So have we lost the focus?
This blog has an end, just 239 days from now. However the end has no preconceived outcome. I have not decided to be something or that something magical will happen. Though this has an end there is no major goal, this is all about the process. All about daily, trying to live consciously for my Savior. I am wanting to daily honor Him by not carrying around piles of (C). Most of life is not that way. We are usually focused on an end point. The destination, the finish line, the orgasm, the graduation, the fireworks, the end of a book, the engagement, the wedding, the birth etc. What about all the time leading up to?
Tonight I am reminded of what my father told me when no one would date me. He said to pray that God will daily direct me in what I am doing and who I am becoming. That way if his plan for me is to be married it will happen and if not then I have not wasted a lifetime searching and yearning for something that was never meant to be. That is hard to do. I know even with this process, I have hoped and even dreamed that the process was going to magically make me everything I have ever dreamed of being. I have dreamed of a new body, a boldness, a freedom, and so much more. However, if my focus is on the end point then the process is lost. I have intentionally tried to not think about the end, but just the day to day. Since I am not trying to complete something, but am just trying to do something everyday, it is completely about the process.
So what about my church and what about this process. I have decided that both are the same. We should as a church be longing for the day when we are able to be with Him in heaven, however it is more important that we long to be with Him today! It is more important that we focus on spending time with Him right here and now. It is more important for me to spend today setting down the (C) and living free! It is important for me to walk today with my eyes set on Him. Then in 239 or 360 or 150 days from now I will be exactly where I should be. Frankly, in our relationship with Christ there is no finish line. There is no end. It just takes place in a different location, but it is still the same relationship. The relationship is not about a way to get to the final destination. It is all about a journey with him that will just continue on in a glorious garden and then new earth! Somehow I think we expect that our relationship with Jesus will magically be different and glorious when we get to heaven, but it will be the same relationship. I know, it will be special to feel him, see him, and literally hear him, but the relationship will still be between me and my Savior. He will still have the same love, the same character, the same grace, the same care, the same delight in me there as he has here! The good news about that is I can experience Him now! I don't have to wait! If we spend so much time thinking about the wedding day or the second coming and not enough time thinking about our relationship with Him now we miss out on something. Something glorious. In fact if we don't surrender our hearts to him now perhaps we won't want to be there with him in the new location. Today, I need to focus on today! Today, I need to focus on his face, today! Today, I want to set down some of the (C), today! Today, because of his delight in me, I can start to understand what that fluffy white robe feels like, today! Today, I can start to understand what a life with my heart in His feels like, and then heaven will not be the end point, but just a change in location!
No comments:
Post a Comment