Life is a Highway!

I was listening to the radio yesterday and this song came on and it made me smile. It made me think of how I had used this song as an illustration in a youth message that I had given as part of a big youth outreach that we had done in Hamilton in the early 90's. Life is a highway, it is a journey and the destination is God and we can choose to find God daily or we can choose to find our own way on the highway of life.

I want to reflect a bit on finding God on the journey through life. Life can be hard, Life can be full and rewarding. Life can be lonely. Life can be funny. In the midst of all that life can bring, I can choose to find God in each situation or I can choose not to.

As a Christian, I am amazed how many Christians get angry with God whenever something does not go their way. It is like, hey God you owe me one, because I am following you. Really? Interesting. When Jesus went to the cross, that is not what He wanted, it was not fun, it was not joyful, but it was what God wanted and it was needed. So my life, though very painful at times, though very lonely at times, though not very funny at times, is not my own life to live - it is a journey, an opportunity to pick up my cross to follow God daily. Maybe the pain, maybe the loneliness, maybe the days where there is no laughter - maybe it is in those days, that I am becoming more of what God wants me to be. And maybe, circumstances are allowed to happen, not because there is a lesson or a point in them, but because as humans we just fail, fail to get it right, fail to understand the joy and the goodness that God has for us if we are willing to embrace that.

In pain, in brokenness, in loneliness there can be found great joy, great hope and great peace. Colleen and I are now able to pursue relationships on a deeper level with people because we do not have to worry about being accused of being in someones back pocket. We were over at some friends house a couple of weeks ago. They live on a farm, and have four great kids and I was privileged enough to dedicate two of them. As we ate together, visited, walked and drank tea together, I felt so at peace, I felt so loved and I felt released to love. In that moment, I realized that this is what true Biblical relationships are all about. To love without wanting anything else in return - just to love. It is freeing and I wonder how many relationships in North America are centered more around having relationships that will only further my career or agenda and we have missed the whole point. The Kingdom is close when we break bread together and love with no conditions. That is a gift that our family has been given right now.

So is pain on the journey worth it? I can only answer for myself - but I believe that it is - I believe that pain happens on the just and the unjust and it is inevitable as we walk through life, but it is what we do with that pain, what we do with those lessons, that allow us to grow, to be changed or transformed to become more like Jesus day by day. Thanks for sharing the journey with me.