Ends or means; most of lives revolves around a choice. Which do you trust? Do the processes, steps from one point to a destination, give you confidence or is it merely a “anything that gets me to the destination” is probably legitimate and ok so why worry kind of approach? Life appears to be measured only on destinations. Does this fact dictate your or my answer?
I find destinations are illusive. Success one week means something slightly different next. Relationships and situations around me keep shifting. With each change a question reappears. Is yesterday’s destination the real target? In the moment I think I understand where I am along the way, I discover that my picture of the destination has moved ever so slightly. The one type of destination that works is something removed from my journey, fixed as it were, with clear sight lines available at all times. Even with disciplines, structured decision making, and logic, the path to a destination is not always clear. There are times when the only measure of success is getting to a goal even if the goal itself is no longer desirable when you get there.
This type of confusion isn’t new. People throughout the ages have wondered aloud how to achieve the ultimate connection with Divinity. Is it a goal or a process?
From one record it would seem to be a goal. “In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.” (John 3.14, 15)
Yet the answer then and now is found in the words trusting and expectant. The goal, result, is now set, established, and available. Our opportunity lies in the process. Will we trust it? Belief, trust, and expectant are the keys to beginning the path. The “or” choice rests in doing it ourselves or trusting in God. Time to choose for today.
