Enjoy the Journey!?

About 11 months ago, God spoke three words to my heart. Little did I understand how important those words would become. Just one phrase. One command. It was "Enjoy the Journey."

In my blithe ignorance I thought, "Yeah, OK, I can do that. I'll enjoy the journey." See, I'm a hard-charging type A person. I see a goal and I figure out how to get there. I push as hard as I can until I attain my dream. I was working with some others to start a new arts ministry and I could see how it was important to enjoy the journey. I was stepping out in faith and this ministry was bigger than me, there were parts of it I was immensely ill-equipped to even know how to handle much less have the capabilities for. So, I determined to enjoy the journey.

Since that time 11 months ago, I have been deeply wounded by a friend, I own three houses-all for sale-none sold, two house deals have fallen through, I am covering three mortgage payments on a meager salary, my wife and I both are commuting an hour or more a day five to seven days a week, and can't move closer yet, and the art ministry that I am involved with has hit numerous roadblocks. Enjoy the journey?!
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I am realizing that sometimes the events in our lives - the problems, the difficulties, the triumphs; are not about the events, not about what we should learn, not even about the sin that we have committed or about building our faith. Sometimes they're about the relationship we have with God. In "My Utmost for His Highest" Oswald Chambers says that sometimes the things we go through have one purpose - to get us to "look up."

Faith is about "looking up." It is about knowing God so well that you trust Him even when you can't see the way, even when things go miserably wrong. And they will go wrong. The Bible says that in this world, we will have trouble. I don't know why we are surprised when it happens. Faith is about learning that life is not a problem to be solved but an adventure to be lived. And when we keep our eyes fixed on Him, no matter what we are going through, we can truly enjoy the journey.