I was looking through some old photos on my computer and I ran across some from a trip to California a couple years ago. I was going out to Palm Springs for a conference and had to connect in Phoenix. I was due to get into Palm Springs in the evening, so it would be plenty of time to get some dinner and relax poolside after a long day of traveling. As I sat in the Phoenix airport, my connecting flight was coming from somewhere else, but for whatever reason was late. They kept saying that the plane was coming, but before I knew it, it was after 11:00 pm local time and I knew this plane was not coming for a long time(if at all) and I would be stuck in the airport much of the night. So, I figured, its only a 4 hour drive from Phoenix to Palm Springs, I would get a hotel room in Phoenix, rest-up, and then drive over to Palm Springs the following morning, which is what I did.
To this day it was one of the best travel experiences I have ever had. There is just something about going on a solo road trip that clears the mind and refreshes the soul, and traveling through the desert as the sun comes up was truly exhilarating. With each passing moment and every mile, the color of the landscape and surrounding mountains would change with the rising sun - from deep purples, to burgundy's, to reddish-brown to light brown, exposing the sun-scorched hue of the rocks. Saguaro cactus would loom on the horizon, and cover the desert floor in all directions. This stretched for miles until I hit the the Colorado River, where all of a sudden the desert turned into an oasis. This stretched for a few miles into California and then it was back to desert again. But on this trip, there was just something about driving through that desert that was captivating. For all the hassles in travel and the stress of a delayed flight and the frustration that comes along with it, this delay was truly a Godsend. It was just what I needed, at just the right time to basically make me slow down and take in the beauty around me. It was time where I was forced to just drive, and forget any worries I had and just embrace the path before me that I had never been on, and realize that my frustrations and what I thought were huge hassles in life were just a minor blip on a huge landscape that would come and go. So I made it to Palm Springs, and had a great conference, and then got back to Indiana and basically forgot about the experience until I looked through those photos. I could have used the clarity I had on that trip from time to time in the 2 years since, but perhaps the reason for this was so that, a couple years later, I'd be flipping through some photos and relive that experience, at a time where I could really appreciate its significance.
You see, many of us think things happen for a reason, and that everything is all part of God's plan. I do believe God has a plan for us, that there is a purpose we are to fulfill in our lives. But I don't think it is any one thing we do, and any one event where the lights come on and we understand the mysteries of life or why we are here. I don’t think that God is directing our lives, moving us like chess pieces, and one day we will suddenly fulfill His purpose in some special way, where everything then all of a sudden makes sense. I believe that how we fulfill our purpose and do God's will is to live everyday loving God and one another, and using the gifts He gave us to better this world. He may have a goal for us to achieve based upon our unique gifts and talents, and the potential He gave us, but in the end, it is up to us to choose how we live, what we do, and where we go. He may help us out from time to time, especially if we talk to him frequently and live by His ways, but he's not going to do the work for us, because its through the journey, the self discovery, and the perseverance where we learn how to realize our potential and do his will. He may present opportunities and open doors where we can use our gifts and talents we were given more effectively to help others. But the choice to do so is ours. It is our own free will, and if our life is centered in love and faith in doing what is right, then our will, will in fact be Gods will. As St. Augustine once said, "Love God, and then do what you will." Think about that.
God has a plan, a goal for every one of us, even if you don't believe in Him. The thing is, having that belief, though, is what turns a delayed flight and subsequent drive across the desert into an experience that you'll reflect on years later, rather than a hassle and a night of anger. Its that belief that will turn that frustration over a job into the ability to recognize other doors that are already open, rather than missing those opportunities and wasting the gifts you've been given and living a life of frustration, that leads to discontent, that leads to selfishness that leads to anger. My destination on that trip was Palm Springs, and I got there, with a great experience along the way and seeing things I would have never seen from the air. Could I have gotten there faster had I waited for that delayed flight? Sure. I could have gotten there and had still had a great outlook and still had a great conference. But I doubt I would have been reflecting and talking about the trip two years later. God has a destination for us, and he knows our potential. His purpose for us is not one big event, but how we live our lives everyday, how we treat the person at the airline ticket counter or how we act in traffic, or how we treat our neighbor. These are lessons I have had to learn, sometimes the hard way. He expects us to use the gifts we've been given. But it's up to us to make the choices along the way, and we may not get there as fast as we probably could, and some of us may never realize our potential. But if we stay centered on Christ, He'll get us there and the journey, will in fact, be our purpose.
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