Where Are You Going?

Every journey begins with a destination in mind. Whether it’s going to the local grocery store, or a cross country drive, even before you take your first step, you know where you want to go, and have a pretty clear idea of how to get there.

Some people are more diligent about mapping out their journey than others, but unless you’re Forrest Gump and just decide to run one day for the sake of running, there is always an end goal, a terminus, a finish line, that remains constant. Not only is the destination a constant, something always at the forefront of your mind as you inch your way toward it, it is also fixed.

Depending on how important it is for you to get to where you’re going, if perchance there are detours, roadblocks, or impediments, you will find a way around them, and push ever forward.

If you give up on a journey because you’ve been met with difficulty at some point along the way, the destination was never that important to you to begin with.

Even if there is traffic, even if there is a backup, even if the road is closed, if where I’m going is important enough to me, I will find a way to get there.

If there’s too much traffic on the way to the greasy spoon where I was planning on having lunch, I will alter my plans, and go somewhere closer. If there’s too much traffic on the way to my daughter’s school where she is waiting for me to pick her up, altering my plan or my destination is not an option. I need to pick her up, and not doing so won’t even cross my mind. I’ll sit in the traffic, I’ll find a way around the roadblock, because where I’m going is so important to me, that I will let nothing stand in my way.

Tragically, this is not the prism through which many believers today view their journey toward eternity. They have not adopted the necessary mindset that they must reach their destination at any cost. Many are content to run in circles or jog in place, or just sit and watch the world go by justifying their inaction and absence of drive with tired tropes such as ‘if it’s meant to be, it will be,’ or ‘it will all work out in the end.’

Long forgotten is the admonition that we must run the race with perseverance, or run it in such a way as to obtain the prize. We have surrendered to terminal indifference, and have bought into the lie that everyone gets a prize in the end, whether they ran the race, or crossed the finish line.

If anything, the present state of disinterest betrays our true hearts. We are indifferent, disinterested, easily sidelined, distracted, and unfocused because the destination just isn’t that important to us.

Why put forth the effort to get somewhere when I can just Google Earth it? Why press in, agonize, pray, and ask for the power of God, when I could just read about other men’s experiences?

The answer to this question is a simple one. No matter how ultra-high-definition your screen, no matter how big or how modern, nothing can replace the feel of the hot sand between your toes, or the salty breeze on your face.

If you are diligent ad single-minded in reaching your journey’s end, you will. The destination is worth the effort you put into making the journey. It is worth the disappointments, frustrations, setbacks, sacrifices, and time it takes to get there, because only by making the journey will we hear ‘well done good and faithful servant.' 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.