The Longest Journey

"The longest journey is the journey inwards,"  wrote Dag Hammarskjold in "Markings."  Indeed, it is the longest journey and for many of us, it is the last journey we want to take.  As we seek to find whatever we are seeking to find in our life, we go in so many different directions.  Some run toward monetary success in business.  Some get involved in the pursuit of an exemplary religious life.  Some put all their eggs in the basket of family and raising children.  Others actually take physical journeys to see the wonders of the world, or some single religious shrine that promises what cannot be delivered.   

It is the journey to the seat of the will that is the hardest for each of us.  We can through discipline shape our outward behavior so that it speaks of correctness, decency, and being socially acceptable, but no amount of discipline can truly change the heart from which all outward expressions of who we are come.  We may as did the Apostle Paul "will to do what is right," but then in the end, we also come to place to which he came as we acknowledge, "I cannot do it."  (Romans 7:18).  We can appear through discipline and determination to be who we are not, but who we are is seen not in the moments of being watched by others, but in the unguarded moments of life when spontaneously we respond and react to whatever it is that is happening around us.  Who we are is never really measured by what we outwardly do, but by what we hear being spoken in the silent chambers of our being.  

As we take this long and arduous journey inwards, we come to the place of crying out with the Apostle, "Wretched man that I am!"  (Romans 7:24).  Hopefully, too, we come to place of surrender to Christ and know as he knew that the Spirit of God dwells in us.  (Romans 8:9).  The longest journey is the one which enables us to finally live with the eternal light of God shaping us from within so that we might present to Him and the world a life divinely enabled to live as it was created to live.