The journey vs. the destination

You’ve heard it and I’ll bet you have even said it – “success/life is a journey not a destination”.  So, let me ask you are you living that way or are they just empty words?

When it comes to life there are basically four elements – the past, the present, the future and eternity.  You would be amazed at the percentage of time most people spend in two of the three (the past and the future) and how little time people spend considering how they are living in the present and how that will impact or influence how or where they will spend eternity.

I don’t care what your opinion or belief is about Heaven or Scripture because in the end both scripture and science agree on the fact that life is more than a few years on earth.  Without going into detail let me just say that life is more than just a body – it is also both energy or spirit and in the end the body ends but the spirit and the energy live on.  Science has stated that energy cannot be created or destroyed but it does change form.  No one really knows what this new spirit or energy looks like after death but why not live on the safe side and assume that when you die there is more than just the body and the life it lived.

So, back to the title.  Since no one knows when or how the life journey will end (the destination) all we really have is the ability to live the journey one day and one moment at a time.

I’m not talking here about goals, plans, dreams or hopes.  I’m talking about how you live each day that you are given focusing on what matters now and how it might influence tomorrow or next year (if you are still here).

Last year I lost five of my good friends and none of them knew they would not get to experience another year.  I’ll bet you lost someone close to you last year as well.  They are gone – where – we don’t know.  All we know is we no longer get to share laughter, dreams, memories or time with them.

So, focusing on the destination in my opinion is stupid - what we want in the future, what we hope for in the future, what we dream about in the future – got it? The future is an unknown but one we all hope we will have.

Very few people spend time considering what death really means and how its uncertainty influences or even controls their present.  During the past year I have read a dozen books about death and dying and the common theme in all of them (different and credible authors) was simply learn to live now – embrace the journey, love the journey, live the journey, experience the journey and someday the journey will be over for each of us.  But how we lived it will or may impact your eternity.  Why risk it?

So, let me ask you – if you knew today was your last day, or this month was your last month or this year was your last year – would you live them differently than you are?  If so - what would you do, start, let go of, improve, end, change AND - why, when or how?