It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.
Ernest Hemingway
The promise of “arrival” and “rest” is still there for God’s people. God himself is at rest. And at the end of the journey we’ll surely rest with God. So let’s keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience.
Hebrews 4:8-11
The “For Dummies” series of books is popular and prevalent: Computers for Dummies, Stocks for Dummies, Spanish for Dummies, Cooking for Dummies, and on and on. At times I’ve treated the Bible as if it were Life for Dummies. So often I have turned to the Bible hoping that somehow a magical answer would pop out of the text and solve all my problems. After I pulled my concordance trick and snagged a few passages, I believed that if I read the right verses over and over, even memorized them, they would act like some spiritual performance-enhancing steroid (only legal). My performance in life would improve, and I’d finally be an achiever, a winner, a gold-medal Christian.
For far too long, I treated my life like one ginormous problem to be solved, rather than a journey to be taken. What I was betting on to bring me Real Life was a deeper and more thorough knowledge of the Bible. Somehow that plan just wasn’t working for me, and I noticed that it wasn’t working for many of those around me either. We’ve all known “professional Christians” (pastors, priests, missionaries, ministers, and church leaders) who know the Bible backward and forward, and yet their lives seem to be moving only backward. A crash was or is bound to happen. It is a great travesty when a Christian leader promotes the abundant life of God and yet completely misses out on experiencing it in his or her own life. I know, because I was one of them. My ministry was growing and thriving, but inside I was not experiencing real Life.
Check in with your heart: I know that I don’t want to treat my life like a problem to be solved or to be a professional Christian with all the answers or have my ministry thrive without the presence of Jesus settling my heart. So, Jesus, I consent to you. You have my yes. I know that I will feel out of control at times. But I choose you over having all the answers. I choose you over my false sense of control. You are worth journeying with, even into the unknown. Meet me where I am in this Jesus. Amen.
An excerpt from Search and Rescue.
