Remembering the Journey

"True silence is the rest of the mind; and is to the spirit, what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment." ~William Penn (1644-1718)

We live in a goals driven society. Everything is about hitting a target, productivity, growth and net gain. We also live in a quick response society. When something happens, we have to act immediately without taking time to reflect on what happened before we act. It seems everything is on a programmed, automatic robot response.

A goals driven, sudden response society is unhealthy. In fact, it’s killing us both physically and spiritually. If we don’t slow down, the journey will be no more. Like dinosaurs, it will become extinct. In my mind, the journey is an endangered species.

Recently, I heard a story about a very disappointing outcome that someone had. I can’t say who this person was or what happened but I can assure you this person had every reason to be disappointed. In their disappointment they couldn’t understand why God allowed them to experience disappointment to such a great level. They couldn’t see God’s justice in what happened. I thought about this person’s plight for a couple of days, and then I contacted them. I had put forth the idea that maybe God’s justice wasn’t about the end result. Maybe God just wanted them to go on a journey. Perhaps on this journey God wanted to share something with this person that they needed to learn. It’s up to this person to go inward and connect with God to figure out what that could be.

Often times I feel there is more good fruit hanging from the trees along the path than there is at the end in the orchard. Without the journey, we are not going to make good progress no matter if we reach the end goal or not. It also doesn’t matter if we are happy or disappointed. Some of our best work usually is a product of our disappointment. In every challenge there is work for us to do and that work usually signifies some sort of change that needs to happen within us.

Not too long ago I learned a little bit about the Quaker process of prayer. The Quakers believe that we need to hear God’s voice and that voice comes from within because God is in all of us. Many Christians pray, pray, pray, but do we actually stop and listen on that prayer journey? Do we stop long enough to actually listen for a response from God? On a journey, we often need to stop and take a break. It is there we find a fresh new perspective. If we keep making it all about the end goal and sudden responses, then how will we ever hear what God is trying to say to us?