When we deny God, we also deny that life has a purpose.
Therefore, we tend to want to discover our meaning – and everyone needs a
meaning or a purpose in life – in the journey and not in the destination.
Consequently, Os Guinness wrote:
·
To those who say, “The search itself is its own
reward” or “Better to travel hopefully than to arrive,” followers of Christ see
it differently. A journey is only meaningful if it has a destination. (The Journey, 218-219)
The late psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Victor Frankl,
had observed that once the camp internee no longer had a destination in sight, he
quickly despaired of the journey and deteriorated.
In The Outline of
Sanity, G.K. Chesterton wrote:
·
Pioneers and empire builders were filled with
hope and courage because…[they] were in search of something, and not merely in
search of something. They consciously conceived an end of travel and not
endless traveling… For it is a sin against reason to tell men that to travel
hopefully is better than to arrive; and once they believe it, they travel
hopefully no longer.
Life’s journey can be arduous and painful, perhaps
inevitably so. It was for Jesus. Even He needed a goal or vision that took Him
beyond the journey to His destination:
·
Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of
our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him
who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not
grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:2-3)
We too need to look beyond the journey so that we do “not
grow weary.”
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