While I must strive toward a destination and goals, I, at the same time, need to live as though the journey is its own reward. To journey today means I live the next step, lean into the upcoming turn, and love those in front of me. My greatest temptation is to live too far in the past or to look too far into the future.
Living in past glories and failures or looking for something, some place or someone greater in the future will cause me to miss the people, places and purposes right in front of me. The challenge is to give attention to where the journey takes me today. Will I go into the conversations I hear, enter the lives I encounter, take the opportunities that open before me, shoulder the disappointments and hurts of others, embrace the questions that present themselves, love those who appear at my door? If I walk past these, I forever forgo these, as I may never encounter these people, places, and purposes again.
The truth is that how I journey depends upon how I see God. If I see God as fully engaged in the whole of life, I will do the same. If I see him as aloof, distant, and uninvolved, I will be the same. My experience with the Divine tells me that there are no small people or small places, meaningless conversations or insignificant encounters, no one outside of his touch and love. And thus, my journey should be with hands, eyes and heart wide open to the world before me.
I journey today, living the next step, leaning into the upcoming turn, loving those in front of me – and in this journey lies ample reward.