Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Enjoy the Journey

Don't you hate it when people tell you to "Enjoy the journey"?  What an overused cliche. I really had a problem with this concept, as I pride myself on 'getting there' faster and more efficiently than the next guy. What is the hurry?  I'm not sure. I wonder if I've spent too many years in Business 101 and set one too many timely goals. While some folks may need to be nudged off the couch, I have wasted equal amounts of life striving, DOING, and rushing to the NEXT thing. I never learned how to BE. I missed alot of the present hurrying to my future. God is changing this in me.

My husband and I were recently talking about the differences in our temperaments in this arena.  He is an idealist and visionary.  He loves to 'enjoy the journey'.  We laugh about a picture someone shared with us of the two of us walking through the woods. My husband is leisurely lollygagging down the path, gazing at the sun peeking through the tree tops, fully engaged with the moment.  I, however, am frantically looking for the correct path, wondering where in the world the map and compass are, and fretting about how slow we are moving!

So if there is a goal or a future to be apprehended, I tend to want to take the fastest jet, or the express train, and sleep until we get there!  But apparently, God is NOT in a hurry. He insists on taking the scenic route with all the 'surprise' stops along the way.  He says things like; ENJOY, listen, smell, taste, feel, relax, trust, and REST. He wants to take me on a fabulous ROAD TRIP


Then, when I DO finally get into the RV with God, I find myself trying to have control of the steering wheel, the speedometer, the map and the timing of the rest stops!  What do you do with a control freak choleric personality that has the heart of an orphan, trying to DO IT ALL BY MYSELF?   
You do like the picture above...you lean back on the driver and toss your feet out the window and chant... "I trust you Daddy!  Take me for the ride of my life!"