Are we there yet?

“Are we there yet?” As a joke, my kids usually say that the moment we leave the driveway for a big trip. So cute. We want things now. We are suckers for get rich quick schemes because we don’t want to do the hard work. We would rather take the pill to shed 15lbs off in one week rather than the slow, steady, and wiser 3lbs a week with diet and exercise. Slow and steady does win the race, but we don’t have the patience. This is especially true for our walk with Christ. We are not there yet. And like the child who has no idea how long it takes to drive 1200 miles, we ask Jesus, “Are we there yet? This is hard. How about taking a break at the next rest stop? Or better yet, let’s check in at a nice hotel with a pool and finish the journey later.”

At Zion, we like to use the term “Christ follower” instead of “Christian.” It’s just a more descriptive word in our culture. I like it. It describes who I am and what I am doing (we also could use the term “disciple” too). So when I say I’m a Christ follower, I should mean that I will go where ever he goes and obey where ever he tells me. Much of the task is joyful and exciting. Sometimes, there are the long trips that take long hours that stretch into long days, months, even years. He has work he wants to do in me. And, he has work he wants me to do (Eph. 2:10). I like what the Apostle Paul said as he looked at his life journey. He wrote in Phil. 3:13-14, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” So, one of the great heroes of the New Testatment says, “I’m not there yet.”

Paul would often meld two ideas into one and make them inseparatable. He says there is one thing he does, but he lists two items. He takes them together like ham & eggs. He forgets the past and strains forward. That’s what a Christ follower does. We forget not only our past failures but our successes too. We also strain forward. Where does Jesus want us to go? Forward. How hard to we try? Strain. Yes, I know, it’s a work of the Holy Spirit. But following Christ is not passive like sitting in the back seat of the car.

Are we there yet? No, but watch out for the comfortable hotel stops. We can, however, keep straining forward no matter what. It’s what a Christ follower does. It’s what a disciple does.