On my way to the grocer store the other night I experienced my first Duck crossing in the middle of the road. As I was driving past an intersection a family of ducks were crossing the road and traffic become backed up. The Ducks just took their sweet time and payed no regard to us cars starting to surround them. People were honking their horns, yelling out their window, and revving up their engines to get the Ducks to move, but the Ducks just moseyed on across governed by their own agenda.

This got me thinking about how we view time. Sometimes we are in such a hurry that we fail to be patience and take our time. We get caught up in the pressure of everyone and everything around us that we miss out on the journey. These Ducks were not pressured by those around them, they just advanced at their own pace. How different we as humans are. We are under the impression that everything has to happen now, and sometimes that is too late. In the process of trying to navigate through life we tend to rush it rather than revel in it. But when we become more consumed about the destination than we do the journey we miss life in the process. Joyce Meyer said, “Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.” 

We have many choices to make as we go through life, but none more important than how we go through it. We can choose to go through life and rush through it, or we can embrace the journey and make the most of it…the choice is yours and yours alone. I have found that those who embrace life are the happiest people on earth, and those that rush through it are the most stressed people on earth. What has helped me to embrace the journey is to always remember that I can’t choose what happens to me, but I can always choose what happens in me. This puts me in the driver seat of my wellbeing, not something else, or someone else. It is our responsibility to put our faith in God’s power and be secure in His destiny and provision for our lives. We choose if we will steer our life in the right direction or collide into the obstacles of life. The only way for us to truly enjoy the journey is to trust that God has us in the palm of His hands. Knowing that He is in control, that He is good, and that He has good things in store allows us to trust that life is a great journey.

Don’t become so destination minded that you miss out on embracing the blessings of the journey. Yes, we all need to be ambitious and driven, but not so much that we miss the joy of the process.

Sometimes it’s good to get stuck at a Duck crossing and be reminded that life is about the journey not the destination.

Colossians 1:9-11 (NIV)

“…We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience…”