mgpcpastor's blog

This piece was published in last Friday’s edition of our local newspaper:

Spending a week in Sydney for meetings gives me a fresh experience of traveling and commuting.
Airport Terminals are all about destinations; they’re just a place you have to be in order to get where you want to go. There’s a reason why the bookshops at airports sell very thick novels at ridiculously high prices. People with nothing else to do buy and read them out of sheer boredom. There’s only so many Krispy Kreme donuts and cups of coffee that you can drink. The best thing you can say about an airport is that you weren’t bored, and got through it in a timely fashion.
When you arrive in a place like Sydney you encounter another form of travel: the commute. People spend hours traveling from home to work and from work to home. Walking through the tunnel under Sydney’s Central Station you confronted with a tide of humanity trudging by. Some wearing headphones, others tempting fate with their heads down staring at their phone screens. The overwhelming majority walking with the resigned purpose that indicates they’re not where they want to be. This is not the meandering stroll up and down Commercial Street, this is day after day, week after week, year after year. Trains, buses, cars and lots of walking. The best thing you can say about commuting is that you arrived. At work. At home. At work. At home. And repeat. No one is thrilled about their commute. What really matters are their destinations.
In life though, it’s vital to be able to know that our existence doesn’t have airport terminal or commuting components. All of life matters.
Sometimes we find ourselves thinking about seasons of life as if we simply need to bear them in order to get where we want to be. Whether you’re a parent with young children; someone undertaking an educational course or training; perhaps you’re unwell and undergoing some form of medical treatment; or maybe you’re enduring bereavement(s).
I think when Jesus said ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly’ one of the things he meant was that following him means that we stop living a life divided into ‘traveling’ and ‘destination’ segments and come to live a life where every moment, every facet, every season, is understood to be vital.
There have been times when I’ve had the mindset ‘If only I can get through this, then everything will be okay…’, but now I think those sorts of thoughts only disengage me from life and from living. A season in life is not like an airport terminal or a commute. It’s actually our destination. It matters. Treasure those crazily demanding and draining days with young children; engage deeply and well in your education or training experience; learn about how you deal with weakness and dependence so your empathy and compassion will grow; and in separation learn the importance of loving and investing well in the lives of those who are around us still.
Jesus bids us walk with him and learn how to live an entire life where every moment counts.