The Life of a Nomad

There is so much emphasis placed on the destination portion of a journey. When we book a flight, our end goal is where we are heading, but not necessarily how we are getting there. Most flights end up needing a layover of some kind, meaning that we end up spending a significant amount of time in a different place than where we would rather be.

I'm starting to think if the same can be said about life in general.

All of us have goals...things we'd like to accomplish during our existence. Some of our goals may be very noble, while others might pretty much be self-seeking. Regardless of where the orientation or motivation for our goals lie, what is certain is that we have become fascinated with where we are going, and less enchanted with how we might get there.

The stories contained in the Bible fascinate me. I find great meaning, truth and hope in reading through the journey of others. In particular, I find myself becoming captivated by the unfolding story of the nation of Israel, which is a prominent plot line for this sacred text.

The nation of Israel were said to be God's chosen people...set apart from the rest of humankind for a specific purpose and reason. These people were invited to embark upon a God-initiated, God-directed, God-envisioned journey. Their journey began with a man known as Abram (later on in the story changing his name to Abraham), who was invited by God to embark upon an adventure...leaving his home is search of something greater than He could ever imagine. The story continues with Abram's descendants, Jacob, Joseph, and others, with each of these characters playing a key role in the unfolding story of their emerging nation. In Moses, we find a character that is charged with the task of leading this nation of Israel into a long ago promised land. As a people, the culmination of generations worth of hope was coming to fruition as this new nation stood to gain from the promise of their Creator and Guide. Yet I have begun to wonder if the apex in the story, the aforementioned Promised Land, is simply a link in the chain of adventure rather than a destination that defines success.

When we reach a goal, have we finally arrived, or have we come to the emerging conclusions that many more goals lie ahead on the horizon? The future is always in motion, but the past has now become static. Perhaps life is more about motion than it is about destination. The moment we feel like we have finally arrived may be the moment where we recognize that the journey has just begun.