Making Great Time

There’s a funny story I heard once about a couple who were driving to a new vacation destination. The wife noticed that they had passed the same landmarks about three times and asked her husband, “Honey, where are we?” The husband responded, “I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is we are lost; the good news is we are making great time.”

How many of us go through life like that? We are going full speed, making great time, but we have no idea where we are or where we are going. I just don’t believe God intends for life to be that way. He is a God of design and I believe He has designed a life of purpose for us.

… your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be. – Psalm 139:16

Paul taught us a thing or two about purpose when He wrote:

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. – Philippians 3:12-14 (The Message)

What are your goals in life? Is it to achieve and attain? Is it to arrive and accomplish? Is your goal in life an “it” or a “Him”? Paul’s resume was a “been there, done that” list of accomplishments – highly respected family, prestigious education, successful career, on the fast-track to popularity and power. Yet all of that to him was literally “compost” when compared to the experience he had with Jesus. (see Philippians 3:7-11)

Paul wanted nothing more out of life than to constantly experience more and more of the power of Christ in his life. He wanted every day to be a new, fresh, and surpassing encounter of the greatness of God. He wanted it so badly he was willing to suffer to experience it, to die even, if it meant he could experience resurrection.

I believe so many of us lead an unfulfilling and confusing existence because we pursue the wrong things in life. We pursue things instead of Jesus. We make a god out of the creation rather than seek the God who created it all. We settle for less than the best.

So what is driving you? What are you chasing? What defines success for you? At what point will you finally say, “Now I have all I have ever wanted”? Until you make experiencing Jesus on a daily basis the passionate pursuit of your life, I can guarantee that you will always be chasing and never satisfied. Quit looking for answers and start chasing the Answer.