We often make light of youngsters’ exasperated query from the back seat of a car that’s been on the road longer than they’d like. And we can sometimes empathize with them when we wait longer than we anticipated for some event or milestone in life. But we need to recognize that these markers are just that, markers – perhaps rest stops – along the highway of life. The real question we need to be asking is, “Where are we going?”
If we have no destination in mind when we set out on our journey, how can we ever arrive? Would we then not be simply driving endlessly from one rest stop to the next – never really accomplishing anything except using up the resources of our life?
But how do we choose a destination?
Many do manage it: they choose a profession, acquire the education needed and find a place for themselves in that area of expertise. Some will stay there for the rest of their lives, others may find ways to embellish the destination. A doctor may become a medical researcher and no longer be practicing medicine, but is still a doctor; for example.
Some of us never chose a destination, we just pulled out on the freeway and started driving. No, that’s not true: I do have an overall destination: Heaven, and I am working on that as I am able. But I do not determine the arrival time. While waiting, I I did have a mortal, Earthly destination once, and I set out on that journey. But choices I made along the way got me off the main road and put me in front of a big sign:
ROAD CLOSED.
No detour available.
Choose another destination.
So I took what I had acquired and applied it to another end point. Each of these end points turned out to be a motel at the end of a country lane. I’d stay for a while, accomplish what I could, but each time morning would come and I’d have to head off in another direction hoping to find someplace where I belonged … and wanted to be.
I’m still driving. And I find myself asking, “Are we there yet?” But since I don’t know where I’m going, how can I know when I have arrived? So I drive … until I run out of gas, and achieve that eternal destination.
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” — Douglas Adams
