I Haven't Arrived, But I've Left

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. ~ Confucius
Ya think? So does every trip to the bathroom.

Recently I've begun to connect with old friends through my Facebook page. How do you catch up after 20+ years by writing a paragraph? Through the rigors of explaining the last two decades of my life I have discovered the obvious. I'm not where I thought I'd be, but I'm not where I used to be. In other words:

I Haven't Arrived, But I've Left

In one of the many 'catch up' conversations someone asked me how I ended up as an Executive Director working with individuals with developmental disabilities. The quickest answer was because if I'd been the counselor I thought I wanted to be I'd be in jail for murdering my clients. (I'm still working on the virtue of patience.) In my early twenties, I had already been on the mission field and was finishing up college. Visions and dreams of growing up to be a pastoral counselor danced in my head. My senior class at NCU voted me most likely to end up in Springfield running the counseling department for the Assemblies of God. Little did I know that counseling would have been like shooting myself everyday.

Sure our entire life is a journey that started with a single step, but which direction did you head when you took that first step?

When I left college I had great aspirations of getting my doctorate in psychology so I could run the pastoral counseling department at a big church. In order to pay the bills I answered an ad for a direct care staff in a vocational training program that worked with adults with developmental disability. That is the classy version of saying I was hired to wipe bottoms, feed people and be sure they stuffed enough envelopes to get the job done. I fell in love with the people, my job and discovered the field that would be my career for the next twenty years.

Okay, so maybe I didn't end up where I thought I was headed. Would you believe, I have still enjoyed the journey I've taken to get here. Would you believe, I still have a destination that I'm headed to, my journey isn't over. The writer of Hebrews says, 'Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.' Heb 12:1.

There are many races/journeys within our lives, each marked out for us. Some marked by us, some marked by others and some races marked out by Jesus. Have you reached the prize in every race of your life?

1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

It's never too late to start a race. More important is that it's never too late to get back on the path, detours were inevitable. Every journey brings with it maturity, wisdom, character and knowledge. No journey is ever pointless.

There is one journey that I thank God for daily ~ my relationship with Him. I used to have a poster that showed dozens of dogs running in one direction while one lone dog was headed in the other direction. The caption read, 'When everything is headed in your direction, you're probably going the wrong way.' My journeys have taught me that the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5) only grows in my life when I am experiencing difficult times. It's always easy to be kind, loving, joyful, etc when the sky is clear and no one is bugging me. It isn't so easy when people are pushing my buttons and being mean or stupid. I know I haven't arrived at the destination God has for me. But I've left behind me the person I used to be, choosing to grow in maturity, wisdom, character and knowledge.

Don't let busy schedules, friends or life get in the way of pursuing your spiritual growth journey. You may not have arrived at your destination, but I pray that you have at least left where you were.

The mile markers on my journeys vary, none of them are still at 0.

I haven't arrived, but I've left.

Come on, take another step.

Kim Angela