How DO you find joy in the journey?

I'm learning how all of us who are truly seeking God and his plan for our lives are on the same journey, the journey from hell to heaven. Outwardly, our journeys may look very different. One person may travel the world, another live in the same county for his whole life. One person may be asked to sacrifice home and friends, while another seems to get to live in relative comfort. God refines each of us in a time and manner as he sees fit; you can't judge someone by appearances.

However, the inner journey of seeking God's will often looks similar, I believe. I've listened and watched many different people in different countries in different circumstances wrestle with the same questions with which you wrestle and I wrestle. I think maybe this is because our souls are on the same journey toward life, real life, eternal life beyond this one.

The journey filled with struggles is a common theme in literature and movies. We all understand it in one form or another. And I don't think we will ever find truest rest and peace on this side of heaven. What would heaven hold for us, then? So if we don't really ARRIVE on this planet, then my suspicion is the WAY we choose to journey and struggle is what's important.

I'm aware that none of this is original or profound. But I think it's something that we all have to try to figure out. Future posts will explore my journey and the journeys of others, and questions we ask along the way.

Now I've gone and done it...

I did it. I created a blog. I need to force myself to write again, to quit talking to myself so much and start "talking" to others. Spending my days with young children leads to a lot of living inside my head. I make no claims that what I write here will be original or profound, but I do pledge to be honest. Most of the time. Names may be changed to protect the innocent.

So what do I want to be when I grow up? The title would more accurately have been "who I want to be when I grow up." I already AM something...several somethings. A wife, a mother, a daughter, a college graduate, a writer, an editor, blah, blah, blah. But those things aren't what I really mean.

What I want to be when I grow up...check out Ephesians 4, specifically verses 13-16: "...until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

"Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work" (NIV).

I want to speak the truth in love when I grow up. I want to understand as much as I can about the truth, real real truth, and as much as I can about love, real real love. The older I get, the less grown-up I feel. The more I realize the reality I've spent years constructing is just a facade. I feel an urgency now to seek God's reality, so I can shoulder the yoke he's made for me instead of fruitlessly building my facade. I want truly to be transformed so that I accurately represent Christ here on earth.

This scares me so much...