We Never Arrive

I love completion.

I absolutely love finishing a project and checking it off my list. There is something satisfying about looking at the end of the day and seeing what got done.

In fact, I sometimes struggle with projects that have a lot of steps because I am not patient enough to enjoy the process. I just want to be finished.

If I am reading a fiction book, I am the person racing through the pages because I need to know how it ends. I love resolution so much that I often miss the journey.

But what I have learned is that the journey is often the whole thing.

If all you had was the beginning and end of a story, you would miss everything that made it meaningful.

The middle is where life happens.

And it is funny because I figured out a long time ago that even when you reach the end of something, it never really ends. You just start something else.

So most of life is spent in the middle.
In the process.
In the formation.

I think a lot of us approach our relationship with God the same way.

We want to arrive.

We want to get to the point where our faith is strong enough, our trust is deep enough, and our relationship with God is mature enough that we finally stop struggling.

In our minds there is some destination out there where we won't worry anymore. We won't drift anymore. We won't lose focus anymore. We'll finally have it figured out.

But the longer I follow God, the more I realize that destination doesn't exist.

There is a verse in Isaiah 26:3 that says:

"A person whose desire rests on you, You preserve in perfect peace, because he trusts in you."

When I first read that, I thought:

I want that.
How do I become that person?

The interesting word in this verse is the word translated desire.

In Hebrew it is the word yetzer. It can mean inclination, impulse, or inner motivation.

But what I find most helpful is to think of it as an orientation word. Which direction are you facing? Which direction are you moving?

Ancient Jewish thought developed this idea into two directions.

The inclination toward God.
Or the inclination away from God.

In other words, your life is always oriented somewhere.

And Isaiah says that the person whose orientation remains toward God experiences peace because they trust Him.

And when I realized that, I thought:
Great.
I know the goal.
How do I do that?

Then I realized something.
I won't do it perfectly.
Not on this side of heaven.

The old hymn Come Thou Fount says it better than I can:

"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love."

That line has been stuck in my head for weeks. Because it is true.

Our orientation drifts.
Not because we don't love God.
Because we are human.

You can spend time with God in the mornings. Pray. Read Scripture. Feel focused.

Then life happens. A problem shows up. A customer sends an email. A bill arrives. A relationship gets difficult. And before you know it, you get so distracted and lose focus on trusting God.

You start trying to fix everything yourself.
You are carrying weight you were never meant to carry.

I know it happens, because I do it all the time!

In business and in life, problems can become so big that we find ourselves staring at the problem, and yes those problems really do exist.

The issue is that we are staring at the problems instead of God.
Our orientation shifted.

We are prone to wander.

I don't want you to feel guilty when I say that.
I say it because it is part of the human condition.

And that realization changed something for me.

Because I finally realized something.
The goal isn't perfect orientation.
The goal is returning…over and over and over again.

David lost focus.
Moses lost focus.
Prophets lost focus.
Kings lost focus.

The difference was never perfection.
The difference was what happened after.

Some turned around.
Some returned.
Some didn't.

The journey isn't about arriving.
The journey is about returning….again and again.

And maybe that is why God called David a man after His own heart.
Not because he never wandered.
But because he kept coming back.

The best part of this realization is that it isn't ultimately about our character.
Our character is flawed.

The story is about God's character.
And He is the Father standing on the road with His arms open every time we turn around.

Prone to wander.
Lord, I feel it.

But don't let the wandering convince you that you've failed.
It's always about the return.