It’s All About the Journey
Posted on May 30, 2017 by Graeme Wilson in Victory Call
We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps. (Proverbs 16:9, NLT)
“Are we there yet?!” How often did you ask that as an expectant child while en route to some anticipated destination or answer that as a tired transporter of one? Reigning excitement at a trip’s outset quickly gives way to restlessness as hours and miles drone on. And so it can be, and often it is, in our walk with the Lord. One can easily forget to smell the roses spiritually speaking!
Whether it’s in our desire to serve Him in some particular fashion, in our yearning to be more mature in a given area, in our longing to be delivered from a particular situation, or in our intercessory requests for loved ones, we often fixate on our desired end while the Father wants us to enjoy Him, to experience His sufficiency in that season and situation, and to embrace the unique coordinates that He has for us. Examples from my own journey are legion as the Father has dealt with me regarding this, and continues to faithfully do so.
One that stands out to me was the years I was waiting (often agonizingly!) on the Father for my children’s adoptions to go through. I wanted it done in 4 months, but over the 4 years that the adoptions took the Father taught me experientially and progressively how to relish need-spawned intimacy with Him as I increasingly fell into rhythm with Him, His timing, His pace, and His direction. (And once we do contentedly settle in, He soon moves us, and the process starts all over again, but that’s for another day…) Am I the only one who has experienced this or can you relate?
Our walk with the Lord could be likened to an excursion with a caring Father Who is wanting to take His child on a cross-country adventure so that the entire jaunt, along with its stops, can be intimately experienced and savored together: the hills and valleys, the winding and the straight, the sunshine and the rain. So what is your story? What are you weathering, waiting on, and/or hoping for? More importantly, what will your response be: “Are we there yet?!” or “Who cares how long it takes as long as we’re together!”?
Melissa Smith is the Women’s Enrich Counselor at America’s Keswick. She has the privilege and honor of ministering to the Colony men’s wives and girlfriends, the Barbara’s Place women, and some women from the community who God brings to America’s Keswick for help or care. She and Bill, her husband of 18 years, have four adopted children ages 17 to 24. Her fervent desire is to point women to Christ and His sufficiency, provision, and promises.