You Have Arrived

Does every road in this life have to have a destination? 

In reality, some roads don’t really, do they? Sometimes roads actually lead nowhere. As our oldest son moans from the back seat when we turn onto gravel for a Sunday drive:

“No, please, not the middle of nowhere! Can we at least go somewhere?!”

Sometimes, roads abruptly end because of flooding. Field roads might vanish into corn. Homestead driveways that once were regularly traveled lose their necessity and become overgrown with grass.   

Jesus speaks with people who want to travel with Him. What they really want the destination to be is comfort, maybe some hope, and a little glory. We might be surprised, or not so surprised, by His response to them. Read the whole account in Luke 9:51-62 here: 

“…his face was set toward Jerusalem.” Jesus had a destination. Jerusalem, the cross, this is His destination, so He can bring us our destination – heaven, new life, real Hope. People were set against Him and they may not have even known why. So it is when we don’t really know or understand the destination that God is truly offering us.

It’s moderately easy to say: “I will follow you wherever you go.”

How hard was it for Jesus to respond: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” ?

Jesus knew these men could not follow Him to the cross.   

As Christians we can get hung up on thinking that the roads we walk in this life are just a means of getting to heaven. But Jesus’ answer for these followers in Scripture is also for us:

The destination of all the roads we walk as Christians isn’t a place but a Person.

How does this lens shift change our lives as followers? 

We can wander through the wilderness. We can crawl through the desert. Because it’s not about heaven. It’s not about comfort. It’s not about glory. It’s about knowing and walking with Jesus.

The psalms are honest about our desperate position, yet they are also honest about who God is. Psalm 90 starts out by telling us that we have a den, we have a nest, with the Lord. 

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”

The place we speak of as our destination, heaven, is exciting not because of the food and the music or even the loved ones who have gone before us, but because we will have nothing keeping us from Jesus. He is our dwelling place. In this life we will have trouble. We will feel without den, without nest, deeply uncomfortable, a little forgotten maybe. In eternity with Christ, the veil of this world will be removed completely.

Romans is also honest about the suffering here, but compares it to the glory of the unencumbered relationship with Jesus we will have.

Remember: the destination of our roads isn’t a place but a Person.  

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.”

What if we lived our lives like we have already “arrived”? What if we lived our lives like Jesus was our dwelling place, our refuge, our cleft in the rock? How does that look different?

Consider this: What does it look like in life to “arrive”? 

We can have assurance not because of a fulfilling job, paid off debt, or a rock star family. As Christians we get to live like we have arrived because of Jesus. We get to live in the freedom of knowing Jesus is it, salvation is secure, He’s enough.  

How does this change how we see setbacks on our journey? The people we journey with?

If the destination of our roads isn’t a place but a Person …

You have arrived: to Jesus.

Up Next - Video 4 releases on Sunday morning. This one is one of my favorites on Dumb Decisions. Ever been there?

In the Meantime -  Watch this week’s Mental Health Monday Road Trip on the Resource Wilderness…what do you do when you can’t find what you need?