Enjoy the Journey

   Life is a journey.  As with any journey there will be times of ease and times of difficulty.  As we move along the paths of our journey there will be joy and there will also be unhappiness.  This is simply a fact of life in the fallen world in which we live.  The key is to focus on the joys of the journey and accept that it will not always be as we would like it to be.

   Anyone who has ever taken a vacation by car with children should be able to relate to this concept quite easily.  We see the joy of our children as we prepare for the trip.  They want to know everything about what they will see and do as part of the vacation.  We share in their joy and excitement as we look forward to the good times we’ve planned.

   A few hours into the drive, however, the joy our children knew sometimes becomes impatience with being in the car hour after hour.  They’re tired of sitting; brother or sister is picking on them; they’re hungry.  The old question, “Are we there yet?” arises.  Suddenly we begin to wonder if this vacation was such a good idea after all.

   Life is like that.  The joys can become overwhelmed by the difficulties if we allow ourselves to focus on the negative rather than the positive of life.  We, like our children, become impatient.  We are unhappy with the day to day life we lead.  Our job becomes drudgery.  There seems to be no end to the mundane chores of our life.  Even our family can become a bother rather than a joy.

   Not only do we need to focus on the joy awaiting us at the end of our journey but we need to see the many blessings of the trip itself.  We can complain less about the inconveniences of life and take pleasure in the joys of life if we will only try.  Each and every day we have the opportunity to be unhappy if we choose.  We can also choose to see the blessings of each day.  They are always there if we look for them.

   God created us for happiness both in this world and the next.  However, life in a fallen world will never be all happiness.  Jesus told us on many occasions that there will be crosses to bear.  We can accept those crosses with love of God and joy in the journey or we can complain about having to bear the cross.  My choice is to take joy in my journey knowing that I can bear all things with God’s help.