Getting There

Sat 14 Aug 2010 Filed in: Reflections | My Life | Grief Notes
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I was blessed this week to discover through a friend that Walter Kaiser was speaking at Cannon Beach Conference Center. So Thursday we headed south for that beautiful spot on the north Oregon coast to hear one of my spiritual mentors. He did not disappoint; it was well worth the trip. But I confess that there were moments on the way down through 200 miles of summer traffic when I wondered.

There was time in my life when the journey was as good as the destination, particularly if it involved traveling. When I was a kid, I mastered public transportation not so much to go somewhere as for the joy of the journey; where was almost irrelevant. But now four hour drives are less fun than they used to be. The body gets stiff and the bladder gets full. There (wherever there might be) has become more important that getting there.

I’m not sure that that is all good. The destination is important; Paul had something to say about that (I press on toward the goal....) But the journey is also valuable. And this journey had some wonderful moments. Because the Christian life is a relationship with Christ, whatever I experience on the journey I experience with Him. And in the process of the journey, before I arrive, I get to know Him better.

It is a reality that is important as I walk through the adjustments of grief. Matt is there and so is Joan. Suzanne and I are still getting. While it may occasionally be difficult, the journey is marked by joy.
Happy