I wonder if there’s anyone out there as compulsive as I am about this. I have this driving desire to find the most efficient route possible for my morning commute. I’ve been working on this for over 3 years now and I think I finally maximized my route for efficiency. It took an incredible amount of thought and experimentation to figure this out. It starts at Barkstall where I drop of Kobe. Turns out it is .8 miles shorter to go through Cherry Hills, instead of backtracking to Curtis. Then I turn East on Windsor. I turn left on Mattis if I’ve got the light (otherwise I take Prospect). Then I turn right on Springfield (because the speed limit is higher than University and there are 2 fewer lights to contend with). Then left on McKinley (because that avoids the delay at Prospect intersection AND it gets you beyond the school traffic on University). Next turn right on University and pray you catch the light on Prospect. Stay on University past Central High and then left on Elm St. The last time saver is to take the alley between Church and Hill and take it all the way to the church parking lot. It saves about 50 yards and bypasses 2 stop signs. That’s maximum efficiency.
Compulsive? Extreme? Maybe so. But I don’t think I’m that different from most folks. Truth be told, our whole culture is driven by a desire for maximizing efficiency. We want everything to happen as quickly as possible and as smoothly as possible. Anything that causes us to have to slow down or have to wait, we consider a hassle and a problem. It becomes something to conquer. Like my commute.
But here’s my question this morning: What if quicker isn’t actually better? What if efficiency isn’t actually the highest value? What if we are living our lives with some misguided priorities? What if the drive is as important as the destination?
When I step away from my compulsive desire for an efficient commute, I realize something: God just doesn’t seem to work that way.
When God was leading the Israelites out of Egypt (a journey that could have been done in a fraction of the time it actually took), God led them around for 40 years. Another example, in the Psalms, we hear the constant refrain “God how long must we wait?” David, it seems, was in a hurry too. But God wasn’t.
As I thought about all this, it called to mind Jesus journeying with his disciples. He was never, it seems, in a hurry to get to a destination. In fact, when a man came and asked Jesus to hurry home with him because the man’s daughter was sick, Jesus was in no hurry whatsoever. And the girl died before he got there. Of course, Jesus then raised the girl from the dead. But, had Jesus been focused on maximum efficiency, that miracle wouldn’t have happened.
I think the point is one that has been made by many before me. God is in the journey every bit as much as in the destination. When we are so focused on getting where we are going, we miss seeing God at work in the “in between”. Maybe we need to slow down and look for what God is up to all around us right now. Even as we are on the way to somewhere else.
