“Life is a Journey”

You’ve probably heard it said before, maybe many times. You may have even said it to someone yourself. But have you ever taken any time to think about it and what it means to you.

If you were to search the internet for “Life is a Journey”, you would come up with quotes like this:

“The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases.”
—William Hazlitt…..
“This thing we call life is not a destination with an end but a path down which we continue to journey as long as we can breathe. Life is to be lived, not squandered or to give away waiting for the end to close upon us.”
— Byron Pulsifer…..
“Embrace your life journey with gratitude, so that how you travel your path is more important than reaching your ultimate destination.”
—Rosalene Glickman…..
“It’s a life’s journey of finding ourselves, finding our power, and living for yourself, not for everyone else.”
— Mariska Hargitay…..
“Because the greatest part of a road trip isn’t arriving at your destination. It’s all the wild stuff that happens along the way.”
— Emma Chase, author…..
“If ever there was a metaphor to illustrate the importance of the journey over the destination, it is life itself. For everyone who departs from birth is destined for death, so the journey IS life. Savor it!”
— Michele Jennae, author…..
“The journey is what brings us happiness, not the destination.”
— Dan Millman…..
“Embrace the journey, not the destination. Enjoy the ride.”
— Unknown…..
“Life is about the journey, not the destination.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson…..
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
— Ernest Hemingway…..
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”
— Greg Anderson….
“The journey is the reward.”
— Tao Expression

So, what do you think?

Do you see your life as a journey?

If so, do you see, like those quoted above, that it’s the journey and ourselves that we should be focusing on, the here and now and not so much the destination somewhere in the future?

I did for the longest time. My life has been a crazy journey. Certainly unlike anything I might have imagined all those years ago, when I had my whole life in front of me—when I believed I had control over not just my destination but my journey as well.

How about you and your journey?

So, let me ask you once again, is it the journey that matters most to you, and not so much the destination? Judging by the internet, it would appear most of us would say so.

After having thought about it for a while, it seems to me that the answer to that question depends entirely on your destination.

My wife and I are going on a trip to Arizona in a few weeks with some good friends and I can tell you now that it will be more about the journey than the destination. It will be a great destination that none of us have ever experienced. We will enjoy seeing the sights on the long drive there and back and once there, we’re sure to visit new places every day, hopefully even the Grand Canyon. But most of all, we will enjoy being with each other and it will be the little unplanned things that just happen that will mean the most. Something we could have done, no matter the destination. It will be all about the journey and not so much the destination and that will be great.

But what if I had a different destination?

What if my destination were a person and not a place?

What if that person were a lover?

What if I were going to see the person I loved most in the world? The person I loved more than anyone or anything? If that were the case, would anything I or you could experience on the journey, no matter how interesting or incredible, compare to finally arriving at our destination, our loved one, and just being with them face to face?

And what if that destination, that loved one, the one we love more than anything or anyone, was God?

Would the journey and all that we had witnessed and experienced and all the things that might have happened to us, good and/or bad, and even all the changes made in us be more important than arriving at our destination? I think not, the most important thing was that we had actually made it to our destination.

You have to really search, but you can find other quotes about our journey. Quotations not focused on the things of this world and ourselves, but on our next world—the Real Journey—the Spiritual Journey.

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin…..
“The journey between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place.”
— Barbara De Angelis…..
“Each one of us has our own evolution of life, and each one of us goes through different tests which are unique and challenging. But certain things are common. And we do learn things from each other’s experiences. On a spiritual journey, we all have the same destination.”
—A. R. Rahman…..
“The spiritual journey is what the soul is up to while we attend to daily living.”
— Christina Baldwin…..
“The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.”
—Teresa of Avila…..
“Life is a journey, not a home; a road, not a city of habitation; and the enjoyments and blessings we have are but little inns on the roadside of life, where we may be refreshed for a moment, that we may with new strength press on to the end – to the rest that remaineth for the people of God.”
—Horatius Bonar…..
“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”
—Andre Gide…..
“For each of us, life is a journey. Heavenly Father designed it for us out of love. Each of us has unique experiences and characteristics, but our journey began in the same place before we were born into this world.”
—Henry B. Eyring…..
“The longer you journey with your eyes on heaven, the more you begin to see.”
—Joni Eareckson Tada…..
“What the spiritual journey is all about is uniting our will with God’s will, wanting what He wants, loving what He loves, living a life that in all its aspects honors Him and gives Him glory.”
—Ralph Martin…..

Maybe the question we should be asking is  “What is our destination“? Whether we have ever thought about it or not, we all have one.

Is your destination something to do with the here and now or the life and the world to come?

What or Who is your destination?

It’s never too late to change your destination. It’s never too late to refocus it. It’s never too late to make it your number one priority.

Scripture seems to say that we can’t have two destinations. We have to choose only one. And you really need to choose, because like baseball legend Yogi Berra said “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”