Are We There Yet... pt. 2

So, here we are, we have returned from a long trip, and yet I find myself still exhausted in every area of my life, wanting so desperately to have been refreshed after a week off. But then, as frequently happens, God begins to speak to me. I had just finished reading the Gospel of Luke these past few weeks, and had actually began to read the first couple chapters of Acts, when I was led to get back into my study of the Pentateuch. I had left off in Numbers. In addition, I am reading John Ortberg's, Love Beyond Reason. That is were the Lord's message to me converged.

I think there are times in our lives when we get so wrapped up in our circumstances that we spend time in the Word and it falls on deaf ears what God wants to say. We get impatient with people, with ourselves and we just want to give up. Then, comes the two-by-four... WHACK! I was reminded in a very short period of time of what God does in the lives of His people. God is most interested in our character NOT our activity. When God takes the people out of Egypt, the people were so weary of the slavery, I think they wanted the Promised Land more than they wanted the Promiser of the Land. He had given them some amazing examples of how big He was, plenty enough to trust Him, but they did not believe. They did not trust in Yahweh, the Promise Keeper.

Then come the cries, "Are we there yet!?!?"; "How many more miles?"; "How much longer until we're there?"; "We're hungry,"; "We're tired of eating Manna,"; "We're thirsty,"; "This water's bitter"... Are we there yet? It's an old problem with a simple, but impossible, solution. Impossible apart form the power of God. It is an issue of faith, of trust, of... contentment... contentment not just in the material things that we currently have, but rather at the core of who we are.

One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 37. Many a day I have poured over this Psalm when I was going through a pity-party. Wanting out, wanting a change, wanting more, asking God, "are we there yet?" Those are the days when our hearts cry out, "Lord I am tired of it all, please come back, take us to heaven, now!" But I have found the answer to this common dilemma is echoed throughout Scripture, Old and New Testaments alike. My favorite in this Psalm is in verse 4. "Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart." In my worship of self, my tendency is to focus on the latter half of that verse, and yet, it is the first half that is so critical. When I delight my self in the Lord, it is not that He will give me whatever I want, but rather, He becomes and manifests that which my heart most longs for... eternal life. Along around this verse the focus is on knowing and trusting God. Check it out for yourself. Jesus described this focus in His prayer in John 17:3, "'This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.'"

God reminded me that it is not about the destination; it is all in the journey and with whom we are traveling. Like my daughters, I have gotten into the mindset, "get me out of this car seat, I want to be there now!" Instead of resting in the the hands of the driver, enjoying the trip, and enjoying being with the family, I just want to be there now. I didn't want to sing another song, play another round of I spy, nothing. I was not content in who I was or more importantly, who He is. You see, God is a God who takes His people to the Promised Land by way of the desert. Ortberg describes it as the "roundabout way." These are the places where God develops us into His likeness. Ortberg quotes Thomas Merton, "The man who does not permit his spirit to be beaten down and upset by dryness and helplessness, but who lets God lead him peacefully through the wilderness, and desires no other support or guidance than that of pure faith and trust in God alone, will be brought to the Promised Land." I had allowed myself to be beaten down by the dryness and helplessness of the desert.

Where are you in your trip? Is your heart crying, "Are we there yet?" Are you chasing the emptiness of the world's treasures, or rather, are you sitting back and enjoying the ride with your Father doing the driving? That is what He desires. The question is will we delight ourselves in the driver and the voyage?