Journey, Not Destination: Why Your Spiritual Growth Isn't Supposed to Feel "Finished"

Why is it that we look at our life as a destination that is to be reached? "If I just get this job…" "If I just accomplish this task…" "If I make this amount of money…" "If I can just reach this place in my life spiritually…" There are so many other statements we make, both vocally and internally.

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." — James 4:13

This is a reflection on faith as a journey not destination, and why we so often get that backwards.

Why is it that we look at our life as a destination that is to be reached?

"If I just get this job…" "If I just accomplish this task…" "If I make this amount of money…" "If I can just reach this place in my life spiritually…"

There are so many other statements we make, both vocally and internally. These are just some examples. I tend to catch myself working toward a destination in my life, thinking that once I have arrived, problems will cease, life will get easier, and God will be pleased.

But life does not work that way, does it?

Why Our Instant Culture Makes Spiritual Growth Feel So Hard

Our current societal norms do not help. Everything is instant. We have so much media influence. Our smart phones keep us constantly connected. We can look up information in seconds. We have texts, calls, instant messages, and more.

Our access to so much is instant, but life is not.

This is one of the quiet, often unspoken challenges of pursuing Christian men's spiritual growth in the modern world: we have unconsciously imported the expectations of our technology into our faith. We want resolution. We want the next chapter to start already. And when it doesn't, we assume something is wrong with us, or with God.

"The Journey Continues": Why You Will Never Fully "Arrive"

We say on our retreats, "The Journey Continues." As long as we are living on this earth, we are not going to "arrive." It is a continued path toward a stronger faith, a transformed life, and drawing closer to God.

Just because there has been a high point spiritually does not mean we have it all figured out. Around the corner is another challenge, another goal to reach, and/or an even deeper relationship with God.

At times, living out our faith can become tiresome. The spiritual battles with the evil one and his deceptions are continual. The battles with our own flesh and its sinful desires continue. The battle with what we put into shadow can be draining. Maintaining relationships with those around us takes continual work. The improvement of our personal transformation work is on-going.

This is the heart of what it means to walk a journey, not destination kind of faith. It is ongoing by design, not by accident.

Life Is Not a Movie

I believe that our society has deceived us to some degree. I have mentioned before that our "instant" culture has us wanting everything now. Yet God does not work on an instant answer and transformation process.

I also notice that at times I live parts of my life like a movie. The problem with that is, a movie ends in an hour or two, and usually ends positively. Life is not a movie. Life is on-going and is not always positive. If we live life instantly, and like a movie, it becomes a fantasy world, not reality. Furthermore, when we live life this way, we live with a lot of disappointment.

This does not mean we live life without hope. We just have to realize that life is a journey, an on-going process. God is not finished with what His plans are for you and me yet.

What Moses Teaches Us About God's Timing

I am reminded of Moses and how long God spent preparing him to lead Israel out of Egypt. Until the day Moses died, he was on a journey with God.

I have already seen the fruits of God's work in me, and I am not as old as Moses was. I know God still has plans for my life, your life, and the lives of those we encounter.

This is one of the clearest pictures of patience and God's timing in personal transformation found anywhere in Scripture. Moses spent decades being prepared before he ever led a single Israelite out of Egypt, and his journey with God did not end at the Red Sea. It continued until his final breath.

Maybe We've Been Looking at the Wrong Destination

I realized that maybe the destination I seek is the one promised me when my life ends, or when Jesus returns. I think we just tend to keep looking at the wrong destination. Our home is not here.

While I am here, I am to walk this journey with God. I am to see where He takes me and whom I encounter. I am to look at where He is working and join Him.

But written into our beings is this longing for a final destination, the one after our physical body is done. However, that is supposed to look, I know I will reach it eventually. Until then, our journey continues.

Three Things to Hold Onto on the Journey

I urge us all to continue to do three things:

1. Reflect back on how far we have come. You and I are not the men we once were. In reflection, we can see progress.

2. Remind ourselves our journey is not complete. It will not be complete until our death. And then an eternal journey begins.

3. Trust that the journey itself is making us into something more. Like Moses, God uses all things to work for the good (Romans 8:28). Knowing God is equipping me, and reflecting back, I see His preparation for me in the now. And I had to journey to get here.

Our Destination Is Still in the Distance

For you, for me, our journey continues.

Blessings, Byron