I am late with the FMF with Kate Motaung
The Word is journey

//What Is This Journey Teaching Me?

I am not a traveler. Growing up up my family took one trip together, of which I remember very little other than being stuffed in the back seat of a car with 3 of my siblings, eating cereal out of their own one-serving boxes at rest areas and miles of cornfields through the Midwest. Three days driving, a few days visiting my mother’s brother on a cattle ranch and three days returning home did nothing to wet my appetite for excursions. In my Christian life I have been on 3 short-term missionary trips. On them I experienced a much greater enthusiasm and purpose to take a journey.

I guess the real journey is not the physical, but the spiritual that matters most. Where is my walk with God taking me? Am I paying attention to the landmarks along the way? Am I walking aimlessly unaware of His purposes in my life? There are roads within this journey that can take us off the path. We can get lost, we can be blinded by the path others are following. We can feel alone as the only view for long stretches at a time is the valley we are in. Do we look behind at what God has done and see how far we have gone?

A journey is not the same as a vacation. A vacation is when you go away planning to return to the same place. A journey takes you to another place and though you may return physically, you don't always come back the same. Maybe it is a perpetual evacuation; a constant leaving behind of the things that hinder you. Jesus said, “take my yoke upon you, and learn of me for I am humble and gentle of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Mt 11:29//

I think of people who need to evacuate their homes because of storms and floods. They are forced to make quick decisions about what to leave behind. In many cases they return to rubble and ash and have to deal with the loss. They may all be material things, but within many of those possessions were arduous years of investment and precious memories. Those losses have to be dealt with, especially when what lies ahead is unknown.

What about when you feel you are the one evacuated, you are left to be ravaged by the storm. When relationships take a sharp turn, people move or die, and you feel all of a sudden you need to evacuate from the damaging effects to a place of safety. You are now in the middle. You feel driven out, yet you are chasing what you can't see. Nothing is right. Could it be God is at work, stirring up the things that have been buried or settled for too long? Stark realities are not always easy to face.

We are all on a journey. The real destination is our eternal home. “Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How do we know the way?” And Jesus said to him, . “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me”. Jn 14:6. Yes, to find Christ gives me a security of going home, but to follow Christ in the journey and find Him in every place it takes me on the way is to reach home satisfied and complete.

I don't want to just vacation and return unchanged and overburdened. I want to let go of what is paralyzing me from experiencing Him for the rest of the way. It will require nothing less than the truth.