This came across my desk today. I love it! What a reminder to keep ‘pressing on’ and not to settle down at any stage of the journey. This is an excerpt from The Journey by Robert Burnell:
In my dream I see the lone figure of a man following a road. As the sun sets beneath the hills, a city comes into view. Nearing it, the traveler sees what appears to be a large group of churches. Spires and crosses pierce the skyline. His pace quickens. Is this his destination? He passes an imposing structure, a neon sign flashing “Cathedral of the Future.” Farther on a floodlit stadium supports a billboard boasting that fifty thousand people crowd into evangelistic meetings there three nights a week. Beyond this, modest “New Testament” chapels and Hebrew Christian synagogues cluster together on the street front. “Is this the City of God?” I heard the traveler ask a woman at the information booth in the central square.
“No this is Christian City, “she replies. “But I thought this road led to the City of God!” He exclaims with great disappointment.
“That’s what we all thought when we arrived,” she answers, her tone sympathetic.
“This road continues up the mountain, doesn’t it?” He asks.
“I wouldn’t know, really,” she answers blankly.
What’s on the way can get in the way when it becomes the destination instead of a piece of the journey. This might be a good time to read Philippians 3:9-14 again.
You can read the rest of the story, as they say, by reading The Journey. What an inspirational story! The last paragraph is worth it all:
Surely each of us has to decide which revival he is going to be part of . Am I going to invest my life in some enterprise of booming Christian City? Or am I going to lost my life in the pursuit of God’s will of mercy? Am I going to concentrate on building something that will cause the citizens of Christian City of sit up and take notice? Or am I going to spend my life bringing the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind the Master’s table?
Talk about putting things in perspective. Wow.
Talk about putting things in perspective. Wow.