Are We There Yet?

I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from Me there is no saviour.

I have revealed and saved and proclaimed –

I, and not some foreign god among you.

You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God. 

Isa 43:11-12

‘Are we there yet?   Are we there yet?’ 

If you’re a parent, you’ll have heard this question just a few times.   As a toddler, Miss Abi, who is now 6, would utter these words within the first half hour of an all-day journey.   It makes you cringe, because you know you won’t hear it just once during that long journey.

From a toddler’s point of view, it’s a valid question.  They have no control over the journey, the destination, the time taken or even their own comforts.   That’s all down to you, and it’s hard to wait and trust and believe that the parent has it covered, especially if you are, by nature, a leader, and not a follower. 

Are you on a journey that you can’t control?   Do you find yourself asking ‘When, God, when?’, ‘How, God, how?’, ‘Why, God, why?’, and ‘Are we there yet?’.  Do you find yourself wanting to get out of the vehicle or at least be the driver?   Like toddlers, we can be pretty impatient and unbelieving when we can’t see or control the destination, the time frame, how or when we travel, or even how comfortable we are on the journey. 

And when find ourselves on a long, tedious journey full of unknowns and many causes for discomfort, how do we keep moving forward, how do we rest in our seats?

When I look forward at this new year, with its new numbers and possibilities, there are so many unknowns.   We head into this new year tired in many ways from last year’s struggle.  I can so relate to the Israelites in the desert, surviving on manna, walking miles each day, wondering, complaining, questioning.   What were they looking forward to, or were they even looking forward?    

Are we looking forward, or just trying to survive, just putting one foot in front of the other?   To look forward and not cringe when I hear my own ‘Are we there yet?’ questions screaming at me, I need to look back. 

I need to look back at the year that was, and remember the God who spoke those thoughts at the top of this page.   We have indeed been witnesses to Him revealing and saving and proclaiming and just being God in our turmoil.  

This last difficult, tedious, long year has been full of God’s grace – His faithfulness, His goodness, His mercy, His attention to detail, His encouragement, His promises and His lessons.  

God sent the Israelites on a journey to a place He had prepared for them, a purpose He had designed for them, with promises in hand, and power to fulfil them.    It wasn’t a quick or an easy journey, made even more difficult by their lack of knowledge of Him or trust in Him.   But He showed them.  

He showed them Who He was and what He could do.  He showed them even before they left Egypt that He was God above all gods and He called them into a growing relationship with Him.   He continued to show Himself to them, even in ways they did not appreciate. 

 

So how are we going on our journey?   Are we pretty comfortable because everything is cruisy at the moment?   Or are we still in the midst of a problem we can’t fix and constantly fighting with frustration at our lack of control, fighting doubts about God’s control and compassion, and enduring pain from the struggle?   

And what destination are we aiming for?   Is what we’re aiming for the same as what God wants for us?    

Sometimes, we can be on a journey to our preferred destination, but we find out that our journey is interrupted, that our destination, the place we are aiming for, is not necessarily what God wants, that there’s more, a higher calling, a better place, and a much more roundabout way of getting there.   Darn!   This was not the plan.

Then, we discover that it’s not about the destination but about the journey itself.   It’s about learning Who He is for us on the journey.   And it’s in the difficult journeys that we do indeed discover Him. 

This year, we’ve learnt some lessons in what God’s blessing looks like, and we’re learning that God is sovereign, much like the parent who gets to decide where, when and how the journey goes.   Submitting to that sovereignty, however, is a whole other matter, and one we wrestle with again and again. 

Are we there yet?   Apparently not, but we’ve covered a lot of ground.   And when we can’t see the way forward, when we can only see the trips and tumbles and pain from the journey so far, we need to hang onto the promises below.   

As we step into the new year, we need to remind ourselves that the same God who brought the ark to rest on a mountain, who split the Red Sea, who pulled down the impenetrable walls of Jericho and who ripped the temple curtain in two, that very same God has got this and is on our journey.  

‘This is what the Lord says— He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.’  Isa 43:16-19