Joy in the Journey

I am sure you have heard the saying the joy is in the journey. I find this to be true if it is a pleasant journey, if I know where I am going, who is going with me, and how many bathroom/snack stops I get to make along the way. In other words, I find joy in the journey if I get to maintain control of the journey. As we all know, this is not really how life works, and it is definitely not how God works. 

God is way more concerned with the processes of life than the outcome. There are many stories in the Bible that illustrate this point. Take Abraham for example. God repeatedly promised him an heir. And not just an heir but in Genesis 15, God promised Abraham more descendents than stars that he could count in the sky. Abraham had a choice. Would he believe God and what he had promised him or would he believe what he was currently experiencing? His current experience was that Sarah was not having any children. We see in Genesis 17 God reaffirms His covenant with Abraham. God does not revise His promise or give concessions if it doesn’t happen. God recommits to His promise.  By this point, Abraham is 100 years old and Sarah is 90 years old. Probably by our definition of Abraham’s circumstances God is late or Abraham heard wrong or something happened that derailed the promise. But in Genesis 21 we see that the son of promise, Isaac, is in fact born to Sarah and Abraham. That was a lot of years to wait for the promise. But I think God’s promise to Abraham was God’s way of saying to Abraham, this is our destination, now partner with me on how to get there. Abraham was not always successful. There were tests he failed along the way and doubts that got the best of him. However, the important part to God was the journey in getting to the promise. Abraham’s faith was so strong by the time he received the promise that Abraham is listed in Hebrews 11 as a man that possessed great faith.

This is just one example in the Bible. There are many others such as David’s journey to become king, Joseph’s journey to be a leader in Pharaoh’s house, Ruth’s journey to meet and marry Boaz. These stories have one thing in common, process. I have many examples in my own life where this is true. When I felt God promise a husband to me in my twenties, I had no idea it would not come to fruition until my forties. But God was way more concerned about the process He was about to walk me through than the outcome. Through the process, He was preparing me for the unique circumstances my marriage and motherhood would present. And isn’t this really what process is about? Preparing us for the outcome. The process or journey exposes things in us we probably did not know were there that could damage or destroy the outcome. God in His great mercy leads us in a journey full of opportunities to get rid of the very things that could later destroy us. How amazing is that?

The joy really is in the journey if we consider that if we let Him, God is the one traveling with us. On this journey, we will get to experience Him in ways that we may not have imagined and be able to draw closer to Him as He helps us get rid of the things that only hinder and hold us back. There really is joy in that.