My True Destination

I’ve been thinking about how easily I forget where I’m going most days. I’m not talking about what path I’m heading down or the direction I’m walking. Nope, I’m talking spiritually.

I wake up most mornings with a head full of things I need… Bills that need paying, work that needs doing, people that I’m praying for, pain I wish would leave my body, things around the house that always need fixing, emails waiting to be answered, deadlines I’m already so far behind on. Before I’ve even finished my coffee, my mind has written a list of everything that’s demanding my attention.

I’m flat out feeling the exhaustion before my day has even begun!

You know, I often convince myself that if I just worked a little harder, became a bit more organised, or somehow solved enough of those problems, life would settle down, that I’d have room to breathe, finally be able to rest.

The trouble is, it never seems to happen.

As soon as one problem disappears, another one slips in to take its place. As soon as one prayer is answered, another burden arrives. One obstacle ends, and another begins. There is always something that needs my attention, something I wish was different, or something I hope God will change.

I’ve noticed that I spend a lot of my life looking towards the next thing. The next breakthrough, the next answer, the next chapter I’ll be stepping into, the next prayer being fulfilled. Without even meaning to, I believe that’s where peace is waiting for me.

But that’s where I’ve been getting it all wrong.

Somewhere in all of this, I realised I’d started treating Jesus like the One helping me get to my actual destination. If He could just answer enough prayers, fix enough problems and remove enough burdens, then I’d be living the life I’d been longing for.

But that’s never what He promised me. He never promised that this world would become heaven… He just promised Himself.

For me, Jesus is my everything. I sing about fixing my eyes on Him. I read verses that remind me to seek first His Kingdom… then I spend six hours thinking almost only about everything I need Him to fix.

Oh my goodness, that stings a little when I say it out loud, and I don’t think I’m alone in that.

No, I think many of us turn answered prayers into our destination. We tell ourselves we’ll finally feel content when our health improves, when our finances are easier, when our families are okay, when our marriage heals, when our anxiety settles down, or when life finally becomes what we’ve been praying for.

None of those are wrong, by the way! They’re good things, beautiful things, things our loving Father cares deeply about. The problem comes when those things slowly become more important than simply walking with Him.

I’ve recently come to see that the world never exists to satisfy my soul’s deepest needs. People will always have another need, another burden, and another longing, waiting just around the corner, no matter how many prayers get answered.

If I build my hope on reaching a place where everything is finally okay, I will spend my whole life chasing a destination that keeps moving further away.

Just look at Paul.

He endured prison, hardship, persecution and suffering, yet he could still write, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” His greatest hope wasn’t comfort, it wasn’t an easier life, it wasn’t even freedom. He fixed his eyes on Jesus. He understood something I so easily forget.

This world is not my home.

One day there will be no more pain, no more anxiety, no more disappointment, no more sickness, and no more tears.

One day every unanswered prayer will finally make sense in the presence of the One who has held me all along.

Until then, there will always be things competing for my attention. There will always be responsibilities to carry and needs trying to fill my heart and occupy my thoughts.

But maybe that’s because we’ve mistaken the road for the destination.

Friends, Jesus is the true destination.

I know it feels as though some things will never end. Some days it feels as though life has become one long list of problems waiting to be solved. It’s exhausting. Sometimes it feels as though we’re merely surviving until the next thing comes along.

But life is fleeting. The things that consume so much of our time today will one day be gone; the burdens we carry now won’t follow us into eternity; the tears we cry today won’t last forever.

One day we’ll lay every burden down, and not because we finally built the perfect life here, but because we’ve finally arrived where our hearts have always, always belonged.

Until then, I want to keep reminding myself that my greatest treasure isn’t the life I’m trying to build.It’s the saviour I’m walking towards. He is and always has been my true destination.

Love, Sarah xx.

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Reflection: What has quietly become your destination lately? Have you believed that peace is waiting on the other side of an answered prayer, a changed circumstance, or an easier season?

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Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. - Colossians 3:2-3.

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God, forgive me for the times I’ve quietly made other things my destination. It’s so easy to become consumed by the needs of today, the burdens I carry, and the prayers I’m still waiting for you to answer. Before I know it, my eyes have drifted from You and settled on my circumstances.

Help me seek You before I seek solutions. Help me desire Your heart more than I desire an easier life. When my thoughts race towards everything I still need, remind me You have already given me the greatest treasure I will ever know. Keep my eyes fixed on Jesus until the day I finally see Him face to face.

He is and always will be my true destination. Amen.

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