Philippians 3:12

Teresa Phillips

A few weeks ago I was travelling to Birmingham via the M6 to see my young nephew. If you travel the M6 a lot you will know that there are many places at which you come to a complete standstill! It was during this tedious, stop-start journey that I started thinking about journeying. You see, because I was really looking forward to spending time with my nephew, I didn't mind so much that it took me half an hour to move from one junction to another.

As my mind wandered I remembered some recent painful events. I thought about a completely different journey I had to take recently, one that involved getting in the car at 7am on New Year's Day to go to be with my family when we heard news of my sister's horrific fatal car accident. Suffocated in a thick air of disbelief, the journey that actually takes just over an hour felt like an eternity. Every mile felt like a hundred; every view out of the window seemed to epitomise bleakness itself; everything seemed painfully meaningless. I knew where I was going; to a future without my sister, of mourning, of grief, of desolation. I was on my way to going to greet my family with the strange air of loss around us. It made that journey unthinkably awful.

As I pondered on these things sitting in the middle lane of that awful motorway, I thought about how your destination affects how you cope with the journey you take to get there. I paralleled this with the journey we take through life. Only a few days before Christmas I wondered how my faith would withstand difficult times. But, because my eyes are on the giver of eternal life; the one who died that I might spend eternity in heaven, my faith has withstood so far. That is down to the fact that I can be saved because of Jesus.

Are you a Christian? Do you know you are going to heaven? Keep a heavenly perspective. As you go through good times and bad, remember that you are on earth to serve God and run the race until you get home. Paul says to the Christians in Philippi, 'I have not yet reached my goal, and I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize.' (Philippians 3:12). Keep persisting. There is a saying that goes like this, 'sorrow looks back, worry looks around, faith looks up.' Keep your eyes on Jesus, on this your journey through life. Keep a heavenly perspective and the journey itself will be easier.

Or are you still wondering what all this Jesus stuff is about? Well, give it a try. You'll soon find out that with God working in your life and with that assurance of eternal life in heaven, suddenly the journey that you are taking to get there will become easier to cope with, no matter what the difficulties and how much things come to a gridlock.

I am only dealing with the loss of my sister purely through God alone. During this time I am finding that an old hymn really resonates with me. The words are these:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace.

This is the reality. Life is eternal, whether you know Jesus as your personal saviour or not. The question is: do you know where you are going at the end of life's journey? You'll find that your answer to this question will affect the journey that you take to get there.