What is the coolest journey that you have ever been on? This journey could have taken you miles from your home, or it could have only moved you few minutes from home. The distance does not matter. The journey does.
When I was a kid, one of my cherished family traditions was to spend thanksgiving day with my extended family and sleep at my aunts house that night. This would make it so that all of my cousins could hang out the next day. The day after thanksgiving never changed. As sure as it was to be a Friday, we were certain about what we were doing. We set out on a journey, an adventure. All six of us would gather up food, provisions, and supplies for the journey that we were about to embark on.
We set off to play/build/create in the woods of a South Jersey farm. We left from the house that sat at the front of the property and we journeyed to the back of the property. Not a far destination at all, yet a significant one at that.
We are all grown up now, and it has been years since the last time the six of us plodded down the dirt pathway leading to our destination, yet it comes up from time to time in conversation. Remember when we used to ______________________. It was significant. It was fun. It was an experience, a journey.
As kids we would journey to the back of a farm every friday after Thanksgiving. I’ve gone to places much farther than the back of the farm in the years since those adventures. A journey can be near, or it can be far. It can occur in a day, or over the course of several years. The distance, nor the time matter, the journey does. I’ve been thinking, how do you journey well?
Hebrews 11 has encouraged me to journey well. The last verses of chapter 10 are significant to the reading of chapter 11. The writer of Hebrews writes,
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by Faith. And if He shrinks Back, My soul has no pleasure in Him.” Hebrews 10:35-39
Tiffany and I are about to head out on a new journey. Along the way I expect that there will be adventures, set backs, and mountain top experiences all mixed together. There will be times when a journey looks crazy scary. It may be ridiculous at the outset. I’d encourage you to read Hebrews chapter 11. There are some people in there who journeyed well, and did some incredibly crazy stuff along the way(And hey, be encouraged, Samson made it in that list.)
What are some things that you have found that have helped you journey well?
I’d love to hear your thoughts/insights.
~Peter
The Bible is filled with some crazy stuff. I know that. But I read something today that I hadn’t noticed before.
