“Your Journey”   Read Numbers 9: 15-23

“Life is a journey.  Like every other journey, it has a starting point.  You had no choice about it, of course, any more than you had a choice about your parents or the color of your eyes or your race or gender.  But the minute you were born you embarked on a journey - the journey of life.”

“And like every other journey, it has an end.  It may come suddenly and unexpectedly, or after years of declining health - but it will come, and like your birth, you’ll have no choice about it.  You can ignore it or laugh at it, but that won’t change its inevitability.  A wise poet once said that ‘death comes equally to us all and makes us all equal when it comes.’  But like every other journey, it also has a middle - and that is our real journey: those years between our birth and our death.  For some its is tragically brief.  For most of us, however, our life’s journey will last many years, moving successively from childhood to adolescence and young adulthood, then on through the middle years to old age.  Like birth and death, this part of the journey is inevitable.  Try as we might, we can’t turn back the clock or stop the relentless march of time.” - The Journey, Billy Graham

 I “turned” 64 this month - how did that happen?!  Would I rather be 46 again instead? - No, and yes.  No, because that would mean none of my grandchildren would be born yet, all four are such a gift and blessing!  Yes, because that would mean my dad, my mother and father-in-law, my cousin and friend and a host of other family and friends that have passed on would still be here.  But that is not reality, and grief is part of the journey. 

“Grief never ends…but it changes.  It’s a passage, not a place to stay.  Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith…it is the price of love!”

Jesus’ journey took Him to the cross because he loved YOU!  His greatest desire is that you and I spend an eternity with Him and one another. He has provided the only way.  “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.” - Jesus (John 14:6)

“God does not promise an easy life, a smooth road, or the absence of trials, but He promises His abiding presence, strength for the journey, and the endurance to overcome. He guarantees that you will not walk alone and that His strength will sustain you through every,, storm, and,, trial.”  Life is hard enough, don’t do it alone, journey with God and His word even when you don’t understand the ‘why’ of what you’re going through.  Jesus promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you!”

Pastor Rodney