The world is full of amazing and beautiful places to visit. They might be close by, such as around Adelaide or our state of South Australia, or they might be further away in foreign countries such as south-east Asia, Europe, or the United States of America. While we might enjoy visiting other places, getting there can sometimes be more of a challenge.
Whether it is an hour’s drive down the highway to Adelaide or a long-haul international flight, travelling can be difficult. We might face the challenges of passengers constantly asking if we are there yet, cramped conditions in an economy seat on an airplane, not being able to sleep on an overnight trip, or long hours in a car, train or airplane. While the well-known saying about the journey being just as important as the destination might be true to some degree, when the journey includes any of these or other challenges or difficulties, we can start wondering if we would have been better off staying at home.
One way to help with a difficult journey is to focus on the destination. If we compare a two-hour or even two-day drive with a week on the beach, the destination can make the journey worthwhile. If we are struggling with long hours on an overseas flight, thinking about what we will be able to see and do when we reach our destination can help us see it from a different perspective. The journey might be hard for lots of different reasons, but when we focus on where we’re going and what we will do when we arrive, it can all be worth it.
In 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 the Apostle Paul writes about some of the challenges he faced as he brought the good news of Jesus to the nations. He says he was ‘pressed on every side’ and ‘perplexed’ (v8), ‘hunted down’ and ‘knocked down’ (v9), ‘suffering’ (v10), ‘under constant danger of death’ (v11) and living ‘in the face of death’ (v12 NLT). Paul’s journey was difficult and dangerous as he travelled around the Mediterranean Sea bringing the gospel to people who hadn’t heard it and building up the Christian communities he visited.
Just as we can focus on our destinations to help us when we’re on a long or difficult journey, Paul focussed on his eternal destination to help him with the journey he was on. He writes,
…our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:17,18 NLT)
Paul refused to make the struggles and suffering of his journey the focus of his attention. Instead, he lifted his sights above his difficulties towards his destination. Paul believed that where he was heading was far better and longer lasting than the struggles of his journey. His suffering would last for a time but, like an interstate drive or an international flight, it would come to an end. When he arrived at his destination, eternity with God in heavenly glory, Paul believed it would make all the difficulties and hardships along the way worth it.
We don’t have to be missionaries like Paul to go through difficulties or hardships in our earthly journeys. We all experience challenges, difficulties, problems and suffering in one way or another. Sometimes they can seem so great and overwhelming that we can’t see our way through them. To use the metaphor of an interstate drive or an international flight, it can seem like we are stuck in a bad place, and we can start to wonder if they will ever end.
When we find ourselves in places like this in life, Paul’s words can bring us hope and strength to help us. While our troubles might seem overwhelming, when we compare them to the destination God has for us at the end of our lives on this earth, they are relatively small. At some point our troubles and problems will come to an end. The glory we can look forward to, however, will never end. The troubles and hardships we now see will be gone, as Paul writes in verse 18, but the glory God calls us to, which we cannot see, will last forever! That’s why Paul encourages us to shift our focus from the problems and challenges we see to the future glory we cannot see. Like traveling, by focusing on our destination, eternal glory with our crucified and risen Lord Jesus, through faith in him we can find what we need to get through the challenges and difficulties of our earthly journey.
Shifting the focus of our lives like this can be difficult for us to do. However, the Holy Spirit works through faith in Jesus to do what we can’t. Hebrews 12:2 talks about
…keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honour beside God’s throne. (NLT)
Jesus experienced and knows the difficulties that go with our earthly journey. By keeping his focus on the glory that God had for him when he reached his eternal destination, he was able to get through and overcome all the suffering that came his way. As Paul followed Jesus in the journey of suffering, his faith that God’s grace and love in Jesus would get him to his eternal destination helped him too. When we hear the stories of people like Jesus and Paul whose earthly journeys were difficult and painful, and how keeping their focus on their eternal destination helped them through the challenges they faced, we can be encouraged to lift our eyes to see Jesus, to follow him in faith and love, and find the peace and strength we need. By keeping our eyes on Jesus, his goodness and grace, and trusting that the suffering we experience will come to an end, it helps to make our journey worthwhile.
Whether our journeys take us down the highway or around the globe, focussing on our destinations and the good things that wait for us there can help us get there. In the same way, travelling through this life can be hard and even overwhelming at times. God freely gives us the destination of eternal glory with him to look forward to because Jesus has already bought it for us through his life, death and resurrection for us. As Paul writes, compared to this destination, ‘our present troubles are small and won’t last very long’. God give us the grace to fix our gaze on the eternal destination we have through Jesus, even if we can’t see it, so we can find strength and hope for our journey as we trust in him.
More to think about or discuss:
- Do you like to travel, either interstate or internationally? What do you like about it? What do you find challenging or difficult about it?
- What do you think Paul might have meant when he wrote that, ‘we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen’? How do you think he did that?
- What troubles or hardships are you facing in your earthly journey? How might shifting your focus to our eternal destination help you see things differently? How can your church family help you to focus on the eternal destination Jesus has given to you?
Pastor Eugene Online 
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