“That”: Pursuing Your Calling

“Is where you’re going where you want to be when you get there?” —Andy Stanley

The important thing about “getting there” is not the there but the getting there. The going and the getting is the only part we have even the slightest control over, and even that is slippery.

So, it’s not really about the destination; it’s about my direction. But my direction determines my destination, and I am prone to drift off course, especially with Sam leading the way.

I don’t know what this next season of my life will look like. I don’t really know where I’m going, but I do know who I’m following: Jesus. And if I am following Jesus, I am confident I am going in the right direction. And I am equally as confident I will want to be wherever I am when I get there.

But not just when I get there. I am confident I will want to be where I am all along the journey, even amidst the ups and downs… if I’m following Jesus, that is, and not Sam.

So, I am heeding God’s call through the Apostle Paul:

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Phil. 3:12b)

Jesus took hold of you for a reason… for that. He wants you to take hold of whatever that is for you. And I want to take hold of whatever it is for me, too, because I am 100-percent confident that will be, “Immeasurably, abundantly more than any that I could ask for, or even imagine to ask for” (Eph. 3:20, paraphrased).

Are you equally as confident?

If I am following Jesus and following the promptings from his Holy Spirit who is active and at work in me, I can let go of any anxieties and white-knuckling control about the destination and embrace the going and the getting there because my confidence is in God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The getting there, the journey, is where the true joy of this life is to be found. But not if you are in the lead.

Along the way, there will be bumps and bruises, highs and lows, challenges and roadblocks. Well, actually there will only be moderate lows, and the roadblocks will be no more than temporary adjustments to help us stay on course.

Because I am following Jesus.

In this next season of your life, “Press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of you.”