Not His Job To Make Us Happy But To Get Us There

“Life is a journey.” This oft-repeated assessment of life has become hackneyed, yet, still, folks, as if they had just experienced a great epiphany, are stating it like they are disclosing arcane, eye-opening, life-changing sagacity. Ironically, for all their insistence that life is a journey, they continue to act as if they believe that life is sitting on a beach gazing out over the ocean, enjoying sun and surf, separated from the buzz, activity, and responsibility of real life back there on the other side of the ribbon of sand. On social media, by far, folks post more photos of sitting on the beach than hiking through the mountains. They reveal they believe that life should be a happy place, not a grueling trek. Folks want, by instant translation, to find themselves in their happy place. There is a happy place, but it takes a journey to get there. These days, the prevailing philosophy is “I should be happy.” I should make myself happy. My family and friends should make me happy. The government should make me happy. The Church should make me happy. God should make me happy. Last night I completed a biography of Roald Amundsen, arguably the greatest explorer of the 20th century. He was the first to traverse the infamous Northwest Passage on top of the world. He was the first to stand at the South Pole. He was the first to travel across the North Pole from Norway to Alaska. Each of those journeys was marked and filled with the horrible misery and suffering which the harsh, brutal Arctic and Antarctic never fail to exact. However tough and loyal his companions were whom Amundsen led on these exploratory, excruciating excursions, however, tough their public persona and recounting, their private journals, letters, and conversations were filled with descriptions of how miserable, frustrating, hardship-filled, and tedious the days of these journeys were. Reacting to this, the biographer made this note: “It wasn’t Amundsen’s job to make his men happy, but to lead them to victory, alive.” It wasn’t Amundsen’s job to make them happy but to get them there. Intact. Life is not one big “my happy place.” Life is a wilderness of harsh terrain we must journey through and across. But, for the believer, there is a promised happy place at the end of the journey. The believer is not trekking aimlessly through life on a journey that leads nowhere, ends nowhere. He is following Jesus. People conceive that it’s Jesus’ job to make them happy, right here, right now. Jesus’ “job” is not to make them happy. Jesus’ “job” is to lead them to victory, to the ultimate happy place. Interestingly, Amundsen’s men, who journaled so melancholily and critically of how miserable and awful the days were while they were experiencing them, spoke and wrote fondly and warmly of those same days after the journey had been completed and victory had been secured. No journey can be that awful if it gets you to victory, joy, eternal life. Nursing homes and other care facilities began opening up for pastoral visits recently. Last week I visited three folks in two different assisted living facilities. Before praying before departing, I read the same passage at both places. John 14:1-6. “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God…I go to prepare a place…the way you know…” Both times, as I began to read the residents began to quote the passage with me as I did so. They did it reflexively and probably did not think to themselves why the passage so resonated with them. Yet, the conviction was in the atmosphere of our “two or three” gathering; there was a happy place, and they were headed there. That happy place was at the end of their journey. We certainly can just sit in our happy place--when we get there. And, Jesus will get us there. It’s not His job to make us happy, but to get us there. And could it be, that we too, when get there will reflect back fondly and gratefully on the rough days of our journey? P.S. Do you prefer beach-sitting or mountain/wilderness-hiking?