Life Changing Journeys

I was sitting in a car recently with a very good friend who I have shared most of my life with. We have been through some things and have most often been there for each other in both the highs and the lows. We had finished our journey but were deep in conversation reflecting on the recent past and it’s impact on our lives. Out of nowhere I said, ‘The thing I have learnt from being older is that the journey is so much more important than the destination”. As I said it I knew that there was something in the comment that I needed to ruminate over.

We spend so much time planning what we think we should be doing with our lives and what we are aiming to achieve often thinking that this will bring us the most satisfaction and is the pinnacle of life. But I have found that it is the twists and turns of the journey that have changed me the most and have enabled me to find a richness and depth in my relationship with God and others that far outweigh what I had thought had value.

Isn’t life a mystery!

it is so full of possibilities and opportunities; colourful, vibrant and hopeful and yet the journey that we start on usually ends up looking quite different to what we had imagined. There are deviations from the plot which we could never have predicted and may well not have asked for!

“Life is what’s happening while we’re busy making other plans.” - John Lennon

There’s truth in this! The things that circumvent around our plans are often the things that are far more important. And yet so often we can be so focused on what we think is the main thing that we either miss the significance of the other things or we fight against them in order to stick to our plan. The outcome can be that we end up exhausted and may well have missed the point.

2018 was such a year for us. There were some huge circumstances that hit the lives of a number of people who we love and with whom our lives are entwined. Those curved balls that have the potential to derail lives and take others out too! Making room to process our own emotional response to these things and give time to practically invest in these people was one of the challenges we faced. We can just let these things float around outside our main agendas in life or we allow them to come into the centre and cause us to grow on the inside, facing the pain and disappointment that they may cause.

In my journey of faith, I have learnt over the years that God loves us to be honest with him. So often we try to present the good bits of ourselves to him and lock away what we’re really feeling about life - as if he didn’t know that anyway! The psalms are full of David’s real reflections on his circumstances and reveal the authentic and truthful relationship he shared with the Lord.

It’s in these times that He is also able to reveal his nature to us. I have experienced more of His love, peace and presence in the more challenging times of my life than any other. When I have engaged my heart fully in the reality of the chaos and pain He has been so close. After all when we worship Him with “All of our soul” that involves our mind, will and emotions. Every part of us vulnerably exposed to Him in a beautiful and truthful union.

It is evident from John 15 that we are intended to be fruitful. (v16). It is beginning to dawn on me though, that what I think of as fruitful may be different to the way the Lord sees it. In fact, the outcomes of my perspective of fruitfulness probably fall way short of His intentions.

I have spent a lot of time recently pondering on this scripture and what ‘remaining’ in the vine really looks like in daily life. Jesus tells us that it is only from this place of staying, abiding, dwelling that we can truly be fruitful. In fact, He says we can’t bear fruit without it flowing from that place and once we discover it then we will bear MUCH fruit. We all have an innate desire to be fruitful so there must be some important keys here. He goes on to say (v7)

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

There is surely significance in his words remaining in us. This often seems to be overlooked when this passage is quoted but the significance of His words remaining in us is huge. His words carry truth and life and cleanse us (v3) so that our lives become aligned to his will (fine-tuned) to be able to ask in a greater measure of wisdom. Otherwise, it would be unlikely that we would ask for things with the right motives and we would merely be like spoilt children wanting their own way! In v9 He champions us to remain in His love so that we may know complete joy. I wonder what complete joy would be like to experience. I get the impression that it is something incredibly full and quite overwhelming as he is likening this to His own relationship with the Father. How remarkable that this is the measure of life that we are invited to enjoy. Of course, the significance of this doesn’t end here. Inevitably what flows into us is also intended to flow out of us! In v12 we are encouraged to love others with this love that we have experienced. This is the command that is coupled with the promise. Just as Jesus gave His life for us - an act of sacrifice flowing from His love relationship with his Father - we are also asked and enabled to pour out love to those around us because of the love we experience in this relationship.

So as we explore this remaining in Jesus, the vine, we inevitably find love, joy and fruitfulness along with a limitless measure of revelation about truth that flows out of the Father/Son relationship through the Holy Spirit (16:13-15). How incredible! This gives me a flavour of what fruitfulness could look like. My life transformed by His life flowing through me and impacting those around me.

But this isn’t just a product - it is about the whole experience. Jesus appears to be more interested in the process than the product; the journey than the destination. Inevitably in the process, we discover ourselves and find our weaknesses exposed, becoming more like Him, as he transforms us into His likeness.

So what does remaining look like on a grey Monday? It can look like so many things but perhaps it stems from an attitude of heart that is intentionally pursuing the relationship with Jesus that leads to a fuller understanding of who God is, motivated by a desire to really KNOW Him. Inevitably that will lead us to discover a different perspective on all kinds of things that might challenge us on a daily basis and cause us to respond to life quite differently. But I think we can be sure that as we journey through life in this way, the outcome will be far more fulfilling and will reflect a different measure of fruitfulness.