Are we there yet?

Do you remember asking your parents “Are we there yet?” while on a long drive for a family vacation? Have your kids asked you that same thing just 10 minutes after leaving for a trip?

The entire focus is on the destination rather than enjoying the journey. You spend the weeks and days leading up to the vacation meticulously planning your every activity once you arrive at your destination. The only attention you pay to the journey is to pray that you don’t kill each other along the way.

Nowadays, many families opt for air travel, but if they did take the car or SUV it’s outfitted with DVD players, built-in game consoles, and iPods. Why on earth would you ever look out the window or talk to each other along the way to your destination?

Over the past year I’ve learned that the journey is often more memorable than the destination. It’s been repeatedly reinforced through my own experiences and through an awesome book by Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.

For example, my only memory as a child of our family trip to Arizona is my father having to pull over in a blinding snow storm so that my brother could relieve himself. We opened the back door and the only food we had in the car spilled out onto the ground while my brother proceed to yellow both the snow and the food. Our initial shock quickly turned to laughter. We still laugh about it to this day yet I have no recollection of our time in Arizona.

(I’m sure that story either horrified you or brought back some fond memories you’ve suppressed for years.)

In the past, I’ve been guilty of focusing solely on the destination. I had our trip to Disney World mapped out to every last detail, including whether to go clockwise or counter clockwise when you enter the park. (Hint, the answer is clockwise, most people head to the right by default – no lines)

So this past spring I took the family to Ecuador. The only details I had arranged ahead of time were our flight and for a gentleman I met over the Internet to pick us up. Seven days in a foreign land, picked up by a stranger, with no firm plan, my wife and kids thought I was crazy. Perhaps I was but we had an awesome time, our best vacation ever. We traveled over fifty miles in a truck so bad that Sanford & Sons wouldn’t buy it. We were escorted over the mountains by someone who did not speak English, in fog so dense we couldn’t see the front of the truck. And we were chauffeured from another airport to a hotel by a strange but polite businessman we met on the flight.

These experiences, these stories, are what made the trip truly memorable. I learned it wasn’t just about the destination, about the things we’d do and see once we arrived, it was about the journey.

Keep in mind the journey may not be enjoyable. Without suffering one cannot truly appreciate joy.

• Joseph was thrown in a pit, spent years in jail falsely accused, before arriving at the destination God had planned for him
• The Israelites spent forty years wandering in the desert, learning about dependence upon God, before arriving at their destination, the promise land
• Paul endured hardships, and years with a thorn in his flesh, before spending eternity with Jesus
• A cancer patient who must endure tremendous pain and suffering must not forget the many new relationships and opportunities that are born out of the situation
• An entrepreneur may toil at his trade for years before ever reaping any rewards
• Jesus had to leave Heaven, to live life as a man, and be brutally crucified for humanity’s sins in order to get to His destination, by His Father’s side

While parts of the journey may be filled with challenges, many others will result in indescribable joy and long lasting memories. Over the past six years at Fellowship Technologies I’ve worked beside some tremendously talented individuals who have worked long hours, faced what seemed insurmountable challenges, and formed countless memories. It has been, and will continue to be, an awesome journey.

I’m convicted more than ever to live life to the fullest each day, to take the time to enjoy the journey, to write a new story… the destination will be here soon enough. 

God bless,

Curtis S