What Are We Missing Along The Way

Luke 24:13-15, “And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which is about seven miles from Jerusalem… While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.”

Why are we as a society, as mankind, so much about getting some place, obtaining some thing, completing, competing, achieving, building destroying, accumulating, and accomplishing? Why must everything have an end, a destination, a goal, a prize? Is the arrival happiness? Is there true joy or peace in achieving?

Cleopas & his companion walked seven miles with Jesus, Him talking a lot of the way, and did not see that it was the risen Lord until into the evening as they ate a meal. Were they overly concerned with getting to Emmaus? What prevented their eyes from recognizing Him?

What am I missing as I travel this life? How many times is He here with me, and I am unaware or unrecognizing?

This becomes my focus and the subject of my conversations with Christ through the Holy Spirit. How do I let go of the temporary nature of tomorrow, and live in the eternalness of today? How do I live in the daily murmuration of the Holy Spirit moving like one of the many starlings, independent yet in concert with the Maker?

Time and time and time and time again God says, it’s not about the destination. It is not about arriving, but it is about the walk, the journey, the daily recognition of Christ and the following Him. Life is not about what I can build. It is not about what I can accomplish. But what He can accomplish in me. Reiterating this point comes T Austin-Sparks in my daily reading. He wrote. “… that which is of supreme importance is not Christian doctrine, mentally appraised and apprehended, but a living and clear spiritual apprehension of Christ.”

What is important is that we recognize Christ with us in the journey. What is most important is that we recognize and follow Him. T Austin-Sparks continued, “The Lord would teach us… that the ground of assurance is not in our having decided for Christ, nor that we persist in the Christian life, nor that we feel strong, nor that we have certain ability as Christians and are able to do this or that. It is not the measure of our activity in the work of the Lord, nor any one of this things constitutes us is that Christ is the foundation, and that we are inseparably linked with Him by faith. EVERYTHING else can be suspended as secondary consideration until that is settled… If only in the face of all you may see of a multitude of contradictions in your own life in weaknesses, and imperfections, and lack of attainment, you will persistently believe in Him as having it in Himself to bring you through to the end, you will go through in spite of all…”

We cannot attain, obtain, or achieve anything beyond that which Christ already has. And the journey will teach us this if we are not looking for the Companion Who travels with us… Who we should be following.

When we follow Christ we lose concern for the destination. The only thing that is important is staying with and keeping up with Him. Consequently the journey becomes alive. The journey becomes the destination and in it are the joy, and peace, and patience, and understanding that comes from being in relationship to Christ. Recognize Christ in your journey and find the joy and peace you thought only existed in the destination.