If you had the opportunity to plan a vacation, would you fly to a city or beach of your choice and spend your time based out of one location, or would you go on a cruise so you could visit various ports and revel in the voyage?
I’ve never been on a cruise. I’m a destination kind of girl.
I love to travel, and I even love going city to city during a trip. But for me it’s about getting to the next city so I can start experiencing it. I don’t see the travel time as something that could be as fun or amazing as the destination itself.
Unfortunately, this is how many of us live our lives. We fixate on what’s up ahead. We plan. We rush. We continually press on to get to the next destination. And all along we miss the real treasures of the journey.
Life is our journey. And life’s treasures are found along the way.
Friendships. Love relationships. Family. Helping others in their hardships. Leaving a lasting legacy. Finding strength we never knew we had. These are treasures from the journey. And these aren’t found at any end destination. They’re discovered en route.
Life worth living is life shared with others day by day. We experience life’s treasures when our days are savored, not spent. How many of us work extra hours and sacrifice time with family and friends so we can have “more” and provide a better “tomorrow”? But what happens when “tomorrow” comes? Are our family and friends still waiting for us? Are we so exhausted that we can’t enjoy “tomorrow”? And is “tomorrow” ever enough or are we always wanting still more? Don’t get me wrong–it’s good to work hard. It’s okay to want to provide more for your family (or future family) than what you had growing up. But if we’re so focused on the future and what comes next that we neglect our meaningful friendships and relationships, we’ll have nothing worth anything when we get to the top of the hill. And our trip down will be very lonely.
The reality is that we never truly arrive at a destination in life this side of heaven. We may get to various ports of call, but the cruise keeps on going.
So if we don’t learn to love the voyage, if we aren’t making the most of our travel time from point to point along the way as we journey through life, we’ll continually be disappointed. We’ll live in discontent. We’ll grow weary and bitter as we keep lugging our baggage from place to place. From person to person.
We’ll fixate on what we think “ought to be”, and lose sight of the people around us.
Today, let’s dump our pursuit of the destination. Let’s choose to love the cruise. Even if our current port of call is somewhere we don’t want to be. We can savor the journey as we start sailing toward the next stop. Look around you to see who’s cruising with you. Take their hand and start sharing life with them, day by day. And if you don’t have anyone to grab onto, take my hand. Come with me. And know this, you’re never alone. God is always by your side. He’s waiting for you to turn to Him.
Now let’s get cruising!
“‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.’” Joshua 1:9
May I pray?
Lord, sometimes we’re all about the destination. We’re so focused on getting “there”, wherever “there” may be, that we miss the real joys of the journey. And sometimes we don’t like our current port of call. We’re disappointed with how our life has turned out. We never thought we’d be in this “place”. Help us to look around and find others that we can share our journey with. May we go one day at a time, and truly seek the treasures of the voyage. Amen.
Q4U: Are you and destination or cruise kind of girl, and why?