Wandering Through the Desert
More ramblings from one caught in a quarter-life career crisis. Being a good steward of time means using it wisely, but just how much time are we supposed to use? How long will the waiting be? When will morning come?
Those Israelites sure were in the desert for a long time. Bumbling and stumbling through the wilderness, they had quite an adventure, and more than once longed for the consistency and the guarantees of slavery. Making bricks and building pyramids was way better than sweating in the sand dunes, eating manna, and packing up camp every now and then. But, would the Promised Land have been as sweet if the journey there had not been so sorrowful?
We all hope for our Promised Land, that one job that flows with milk and honey that will make us feel as though we’ve made it, we’ve arrived, and we’re finally happy. However, we’re never ready to sign up for the expedition through the rough waters or hot sands that take us there. We would much rather arrive there in first-class style, having just taken a nap and sipped champagne from the front of the plane. But that flight won’t get us there. That flight’s headed toward Guaranteeville. Sure it’s nonstop and direct, but that’s not where we need to go. Unfortunately, we want the Promised Land and the only flight headed that way has a long layover in No Man’s Land. The choice is yours.
What makes us want the destination, but not the journey? Why do we forget to take in the scenery while we’re too busy imagining the end of our trip? Why do we want things to be over and done when they’ve only just begun?
Maybe in our digital age of microwaves and high speed Internet, we have to have everything at the drop of a hat. Maybe our mouth is watering so much at the milk and honey that we don’t want the cows and bees to be fully grown before they can supply our demand. We would rather drink sweet milk and eat unsweet honey just to say that we had our fill of the land’s bounty. We think that having anything now is better than waiting for the best thing later.
My fear is that I will rationalize my regret with the excuse that I needed to go through my wilderness in order to get to my Promised Land. But if I do that, I’m only looking back. And if I only think about finding that niche I so desperately want for meaning, I’m only looking ahead. The meaning to the life well lived is in looking around. And we can only do that by embracing the journey.
Quotes for the journey:
Those Israelites sure were in the desert for a long time. Bumbling and stumbling through the wilderness, they had quite an adventure, and more than once longed for the consistency and the guarantees of slavery. Making bricks and building pyramids was way better than sweating in the sand dunes, eating manna, and packing up camp every now and then. But, would the Promised Land have been as sweet if the journey there had not been so sorrowful?
We all hope for our Promised Land, that one job that flows with milk and honey that will make us feel as though we’ve made it, we’ve arrived, and we’re finally happy. However, we’re never ready to sign up for the expedition through the rough waters or hot sands that take us there. We would much rather arrive there in first-class style, having just taken a nap and sipped champagne from the front of the plane. But that flight won’t get us there. That flight’s headed toward Guaranteeville. Sure it’s nonstop and direct, but that’s not where we need to go. Unfortunately, we want the Promised Land and the only flight headed that way has a long layover in No Man’s Land. The choice is yours.
What makes us want the destination, but not the journey? Why do we forget to take in the scenery while we’re too busy imagining the end of our trip? Why do we want things to be over and done when they’ve only just begun?
Maybe in our digital age of microwaves and high speed Internet, we have to have everything at the drop of a hat. Maybe our mouth is watering so much at the milk and honey that we don’t want the cows and bees to be fully grown before they can supply our demand. We would rather drink sweet milk and eat unsweet honey just to say that we had our fill of the land’s bounty. We think that having anything now is better than waiting for the best thing later.
My fear is that I will rationalize my regret with the excuse that I needed to go through my wilderness in order to get to my Promised Land. But if I do that, I’m only looking back. And if I only think about finding that niche I so desperately want for meaning, I’m only looking ahead. The meaning to the life well lived is in looking around. And we can only do that by embracing the journey.
Quotes for the journey:
- Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left; turn your foot from evil. - Proverbs 4:23-27, NASB
- When the world goes flat – and you are feeling flattened – reach for a shovel and dig inside your self. Don’t try to build walls. - Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat
- One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night. - Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam
- For the person with creative potential there is no wholeness except in using it. - Robert K. Greenleaf, The Servant as Leader
- This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and there is a rumor going around the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life. - C. S. Lewis
- If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere. - Bruce Northam, Globetrotter Dogma
- My goal is to live every moment passionately, to rejoice humbly in the profound presence of nature, to respond appropriately to the unexpected events life presents, and to be used when I die. - Ruth Slickman, What Does It Mean to Be Human?
- It is one thing for me not to be able to see the road ahead; it is quite another for me to see it and out of fear to cease my inquiry. I knew that I must continue my pilgrimage, no matter where it led. - John Shelby Spong, A New Christianity For a New World
- Do not miss the gale for want of preparation for it. - Charles Spurgeon, Morning By Morning
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