In his book “Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life”, the author Charles Swindoll tells a story about the 19th Century agnostic Thomas Huxley (some of you might know that it was Huxley who promoted Darwinism and Humanism in his attacks on Christianity).
Huxley was in Dublin and was rushing to catch a train. He climbed aboard one of Dublin’s famous horse drawn taxis and said to the driver -“Hurry, I’m almost late … drive fast”.
Off they went at a furious pace and Huxley sat back in his seat and closed his eyes. After a while Huxley opened his eyes and glanced out the window to notice that they were going in the wrong direction. Realizing that he hadn’t told the driver where to take him he called out ‘do you know where you’re going?’ The driver replied “No, your honour, but I am driving very fast’.
It is a little bit ironic that I am currently (Wednesday afternoon) stuck on a plane to San Diego with my wife at SFO. We are on the tarmac with a 30 minute delay tacked on to an already one hour delay. The people who on their way to Seattle (via San Diego???) were just told to get off the plane to take a different plane to Las Vegas which would connect to Oakland which would eventually get to Seattle at 9pm tonight. Wait, what? It is not that bad for us other than sitting in the plane with no air conditioning and the person behind me complaining about the airline.
Update… (I know you are just reading the next paragraph but this is an ever changing situation) I am now typing back at the terminal. Yeah, the flight just got cancelled. The pilot apologized that he broke the plane. Ha! I am not going anywhere as of yet. Unlike Huxley in the story above- I do hope to get to my destination sometime before I fly back on Monday morning. Hmmm do I get my car out of long term and drive? I hope not.
I have no agenda the rest of this week other than read and work on my computer. Rachel (Mrs. Pr. Ben) has a conference to attend and present at. She needs to get to San Diego, I am just tagging along.
This is not about my travel troubles. This is a much bigger spiritual issue. I know where I am going. Every day I am one step closer to seeing Jesus face to face. That is where I am headed and I want to bring as many people along with me as I can. However, it is not just the destination, it is the journey too. My life is not just sitting in a spiritual terminal waiting for my heavenly airplane to depart. Poor Huxley didn’t know where he was going in the moment or spiritually speaking!
Life is both a journey and a destination. To neglect either one is to miss half of your life. I do not plan on missing anything. As a church, we have been gathered to “do life” together. In the same we cram ourselves on a plane to go somewhere different—we assemble at church to be reminded of our destination and our journey together.
I am thankful for both. I want to live life with the joy of knowing Jesus (and you too) as well as seeing Jesus face to face when I arrive home for the last time.
Enjoy the journey and look forward to going home!
God bless,
Pr. Ben