Destination: Known!
When I was a teenager, we once took a teen activity to a “Destination Unknown.” Our parents were told ahead of time where we were heading, but none of us knew until our van pulled up . . . to a cemetery! Although it was a most unusual location for a teen activity, our youth pastor took it as an opportunity to teach us to “number our days” and consider the importance of investing our short lives into doing God’s will.
If the events of your life were pictured on a map, what would be the destination? What is the purpose for the events we experience throughout our lifetime?
Sometimes when we look at the tangle of roads, rivers, mountains, and even valleys on our Life Map, we can get so distracted by the journey itself that we forget it actually has a destination. We invest years of our lives into a job that can be lost in a pandemic, a relationship that can be torn away by betrayal, or a talent that can be destroyed by an accident. When our journey encounters tragedies and disappointments alike, we are tempted to wonder, “Why am I even traveling? This is a road that leads to Nowhere!” In those dark moments, don’t forget your real destination. Take a closer look at the map. The destination of the path you are on is actually clearly marked: It is the “glory of God.”
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Isaiah 43:7 reminds us the purpose for our existence: “ . . . every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.”
Some might think of their destination as their “happily ever after,” like the stories from childhood when the beautiful girl rides off on a white steed with her knight in shining armor. But it doesn’t take long for any of us to bump into the reality that adulthood can be a minefield riddled with interruptions to our “happily ever after.”
It is the glory of God that gives meaning to the mundane and the difficult seasons of life. We no longer need to compare ourselves to those who seem happier, wealthier, more popular, or more successful. The mother rocking her crying baby in the middle of the night can glorify God as much as the evangelist preaching in a coliseum. The dyslexic second-grader struggling to read can glorify God as much as the teenager who just won the Scholastic Bowl. The single Sunday school teacher praying for her students on a quiet Saturday morning can glorify God as much as her friend who is getting ready to get married that day. The glory of God takes the contest out of living, because we are all seeking the glory of Someone much more important than any of us.
And so, if your “white steed” is in the shop for repairs right now, and that “knight in shining armor” has developed a chronic snoring problem, glorify God with patience in inconveniences. If you are still waiting for your knight to show up, glorify God with contentment and faith in the mystery of God’s high thoughts for you. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
When your path is exhausting as you help those around you with their own difficult journeys, glorify God with unconditional love and mountain-moving faith.
When your path meets up with wild beasts who seek to destroy you, glorify God with courage and forgiveness.
When members of your traveling party go on to heaven, glorify God by accepting His grace for what is humanly unacceptable.
And when your own path comes to a sharp end that leads to eternal glory, glorify God like Paul in Philippians 1:20: “ . . . So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.”
Journey for the glory of God. Jesus is worthy of such a destination.