The past week at our appreciation breakfast, I heard many of you talking about the complications, cares and hurts of life along with the unbelievable schedules that each of us seems to be following.  The operative greeting, especially from the men was “How’s it going?”  Not an uncommon greeting, eh? The operative word here is “going”.  I’ve been thinking a good bit about “going” lately with the health situation of my mom. I have also been thinking about “going” with the perspective of our life’s journey as a foreigner – a traveler in a process of transformation.  Psalm 39:12 “Hear my prayer, O Lord… for I am a foreigner (traveler or pilgrim) with You…”

It is so easy to become so focused on “doing” that we forget we are “going.”  We are on a journey… you and I.  Originally, we were created “at home” in Eden.  But since the fall, life has become a journey and home has become a dream… something longed for in the future.  We believe this with all of our hearts, and yet, sometimes the way we live seems to contradict that belief. It is not roots or permanence, but journey or pilgrimage that we are called to embrace in this life.  Pilgrimage can conjure up images of Puritans dressed in black, settling into a new life and world, or a band of middle aged brothers on an adventure to “find themselves.” The idea of journey or pilgrimage means process, movement, change, hope and ultimately… destination.

In the scriptures, the traveler image is a continual one. A quick search of “pilgrim(s), stranger(s), alien(s), foreigner(s), and pilgrimage” yielded 182 in the NIV. A quick look at Hebrews 11:13-16 will do for us today.  “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

Should anything be more definitive of our life today than this text?  Those “strangers” had a perspective based upon the promises of God! Though the promise was in the past, it caused them to focus their eyes on the future. As travelers, we should be so totally convinced of the truth of who we really are, the mission we are on and the promises God has given, that it captures our minds and thoughts in such a way that it effects our actions and emotions.  The result should cause us to gladly live differently and proclaim that we are not at home – we are on the journey!

My folks were given the church parsonage when they celebrated their 25th Anniversary with the church back home in Lakeland.  They sold that house when I was away at college and I remember coming back home during the Christmas break and pulling into the driveway, only to realize that I was at the wrong house.  I still remember that strange feeling when home wasn’t home anymore.  A couple of years later when I was married and we were moving, I was filled with great satisfaction in realizing that home here on this earth was not about a place or structure, but a person.  If I was with Angela, that was home.  After a good many moves with her, we have come to understand that ultimately, home is certainly not some place here on this earth, but a future face to face with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Abraham never did find or live in a city. He never even lived in a house! He was a traveler in a tent with a promise and he was content.  God has given as an Abraham-like call.  This isn’t just about a new year or another opportunity, it is about eternity.  We have been captured by a promise that has made us travelers.  The rest of our journey is a process of being changed into someone who God identifies as His own.

If we check out Abraham’s journey in Genesis 12-22, He struggled with fear, and those fears at times defeated him.  But God wasn’t about to abandon Abraham in the middle of those fears. Abraham would confront them every step of his journey until the day God called for the ultimate sacrifice of his son.  As Abraham responded in faith, God said of Abraham… “now I know you fear God.”  From then on, God would call Himself… “I am the God of Abraham.”   Paul says in the book of Philippians, “I am confident that He who began the good work in you will carry it on to completion”.   We are on a journey and the process, not just the completion, is part of the promise that we must hold on to as the cares of life close in on us.  By the way – How’s it going?

Pastor Joel