I desire, as I have for many years, to come to you when I go to Spain. For I do hope to see you on my journey and to be sent on by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a little while.
Our lives are journeys, with a beginning and a destination. Many roads can be used to take those journeys. There are two great questions about that journey. One is, “Do you know the way home?” And the other is, “Who will be your companions?”
If you are looking for an image through which you can understand life, look no further than the image of a journey. Charles Kuralt gives us a thousand memorable images “On the Road”. The poet Robert Frost speaks of two roads diverging in a yellow wood, and, because he chose the one less traveled by, that has made all the difference. The inner life guru Scott Peck then goes on to write eloquently of The Road Less Traveled. My bookshelves contain titles like The Road to Inner Peace, Highway to Happiness, and Tracks of a Fellow Struggler. There is no better image than the image of a journey by which to understand life. For …
Our lives are journeys, with a beginning and a destination. Many roads can be used to take those journeys. There are two great questions about that journey. One is, “Do you know the way home?” And the other is, “Who will be your companions?”
The Bible too is replete with this image. There is Abraham, called by God to leave his father’s house and to go to a land which he had never seen, there to settle and found a nation. Before he could found a nation, there was a journey. There is Moses, leading God’s people out of bondage; but before he could lead them from Egypt, he had himself to travel to another land, he had to journey to Pharaoh’s court, and when the moment of exodus came, it led to a generation of wandering in the wilderness. A wearying, tiresome, long, and dangerous journey. But one in which the same great questions are raised, for …
Our lives are journeys, with a beginning and a destination. Many roads can be used to take those journeys. There are two great questions about that journey. One is, “Do you know the way home?” And the other is, “Who will be your companions?”
Without question, the greatest traveler of the New Testament is the apostle Paul. He criss-crossed the Mediterranean world, planting new churches, admonishing the wayward and encouraging the weak. His missionary journeys are classics, which we study even today in order to understand how to invest our time and our energies. We study Paul, the great traveler, who seemed to understand how to make the most of a journey, how to get where you want to go and do there what you want to do.
Most of us are challenged by that, aren’t we? We aren’t so sure about our journeys. Paul said in one of his letters, “This one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, I press forward toward the goal.” But so far from being able to say, “This one thing I do …”, most of us have to confess, “These many things I dabble in.” We are not as focused as he. We don’t always know where we are going. It might be said of us, as someone said of Christopher Columbus, that when he set out, he didn’t know where he was going; when he arrived, he didn’t know where he was (he thought he was near India), and when he got home, he didn’t know where he had been!
Maybe so. Probably that’s right. And yet, with all of that, I would argue again …
Our lives are journeys, with a beginning and a destination. Many roads can be used to take those journeys. There are two great questions about that journey. One is, “Do you know the way home?” And the other is, “Who will be your companions?”
Paul set out for Spain. He knew that he wanted to preach there and to establish churches. Spain was the farthest the ancient mind could stretch, it was as far west as anyone knew about. On the maps they would write, out to the west of Spain, “Ne plus ultra” -- no more beyond. Spain had captured Paul’s heart. There he would push the boundaries and expand the envelope of his own experience. And there he would take the gospel of Christ. How would he get there? He was not sure. He only knew that he would have to go by way of Rome, for all roads led to Rome. And so to the Christians in Rome, whose support he needed, Paul wrote the magnificent letter from which we have read today. For Paul knew …
Our lives are journeys, with a beginning and a destination. Many roads can be used to take those journeys. There are two great questions about that journey. One is, “Do you know the way home?” And the other is, “Who will be your companions?”
I
A few days ago David Broadnax felt in his heart a desire to go to Spain. Something summoned him there. As I am told the story, it was a place he had often wanted to see. It represented an experience he wanted to have. He had not intimated to anyone that his life might be coming to a close. I don’t know whether he suspected that or not. But he just felt that this was a journey he wanted to make. And so, like Paul, he set out to complete the dream of going to this ancient land.
God puts these inclinations into our hearts. That sudden desire to do something, to go somewhere; that instant, undefined urgency. We need to listen to that. We need to hear that. How many times have I personally had the feeling that I ought to go and see someone, usually someone who had been very ill? And if I obey that impulse, how wonderful it is, when death comes hours or days later, to know that this one had gone on with the message of Christ fresh in his mind. But when I do not obey that impulse, what bitter disappointment!
David heard and followed the impulse to take a journey; like Paul’s, a journey to Spain. You may be feeling right now that there is a journey you need to take – that there is someone with whom you need to reconcile; there is a task you need to finish; there is a word you need to speak. Don’t put it off! Don’t brush it aside! If it is the Spirit speaking, then do it! Life tomorrow is not guaranteed. All you have is now. Do what the Spirit says do; and go where the Spirit says go. For …
Our lives are journeys, with a beginning and a destination. Many roads can be used to take those journeys. There are two great questions about that journey. One is, “Do you know the way home?” And the other is, “Who will be your companions?”
II
Inevitably, however, there will be pathways that serve as detours. There will be little side roads that look attractive at the time, but which do not really lead directly to the destination. There will be pathways that serve as detours. The bad news is that these take time and energy away from the highway. But the good news is that even the detours can be forgiven, and ultimately they can lead you home.
Paul never actually made it to Spain. He did get as far as Rome, because back in Jerusalem he managed to get himself arrested – that sure seems like a detour, doesn’t it? And then after months and months of languishing in prison and going through various trials, they sent him to Rome, his passage paid by Caesar, so that the emperor himself could decide his case. It all looked like a detour, a colossal waste of time. But it wasn’t, not at all. Because each step moved him closer to his goal. Each step took him nearer where he wanted to be.
Some pathways serve as detours. These may take time and energy away from the highway, but they can be forgiven, and they can lead you home.
David Broadnax began his journey in a large family in Columbus, Georgia. His journey wended its way through radiology training here in Washington at Howard University and on to New York and the world of films and music and entertainment. Among his works you will find a number of things, even horror films! Films about ghosts and goblins, zombies and vampires! Wow! Does that ever seem like a detour! Does that ever look like a bypath! And it is .. but remember that even in horror films the director is dealing with eternal things. Even in horror films there is a fascination with ultimate things. And so you might say, “How does a good Georgia Baptist boy get involved with the world of the supernatural and the occult?” I don’t know. I only know that there are detours on the path, but that even the detours mean something. Even the detours can be used by the living God to get us where we are supposed go. Even the detours finally lead home. For …
Our lives are journeys, with a beginning and a destination. Many roads can be used to take those journeys. There are two great questions about that journey. One is, “Do you know the way home?” And the other is, “Who will be your companions?”
III
If we, like Paul, do not achieve all that we expect, at least know this today: there is a road that leads home. There is a way we can travel that will get us where we want to go. Paul lived in a world in which they said all roads lead to Rome, but he proved that all roads lead not to Rome, but to home.
He didn’t make it to Spain, but he did make it home. He didn’t make it back to Jerusalem, but he did make it home. He didn’t do all he wanted to do, but he did follow the Lord’s leading, and made his way home.
David told his sister, just days before his journey, that he did know Christ, that he had trusted Jesus Christ as his lord and his savior. David told Earline that the detours were left behind and that he was on the straight highway that leads home. Praise God that he is indeed at home. At last at home.
Where are you on your journey? How far have you gone? The other day I was on a website that told me they would estimate how far I had walked if I would just type in my birth date. I did so, and it said I had walked about 97,000 miles! Yes, but where have I gone? And where am I going? And you? Do you know where you are on your journey? Do you know where it’s headed? Or are you on a detour that you need to leave? Where are you on your journey? And who is going with you?
Oh, I know what I want. “I want Jesus to walk with me. All along my pilgrim journey, yes, I want Jesus to walk with me.” And oh, I know what I will see when I get there. “We shall behold him, face to face in all His glory, we shall behold him.”
Where are you going? Where are you on your journey?
Our lives are journeys, with a beginning and a destination. Many roads can be used to take those journeys. There are two great questions about that journey. One is, “Do you know the way home?” And the other is, “Who will be your companions?”
I will set out by way of you to Spain; and I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
When we all get to heaven .. where we’ll see Jesus .. what a day of rejoicing that will be!
