Driving around today, I found myself behind a car with a license plate that spelled out a word… well, I’ll use the word “searching.”  I’m not going to put the license plate here.  That just screams aiding identity thieves or something.

I’m not sure what this person is searching for.  Perhaps the driver is a chronic loser; they lose their glasses, their keys, their phone, their wallet.   Perhaps they’re searching for something deeper.  The meaning of life, maybe.   Why are we here?  What is our purpose?  If this second possibility is true, the searching has impacted them enough to put it on their license plate.  After all, if you’re  going to get a vanity plate and pay $75.00 for registration, then you might as well choose a saying that defines you.  Some people put all their effort into the search.  They try religions, relationships, food, career.  In fact, maybe they don’t want the answer because to them, just the knowledge they garner is in itself the purpose of their life.  Kind of like that phrase “Life is a journey, not a destination.”

As a unrepentant Type-A personality, I will admit that that phrase annoys me to death.

As a unashamedly Bible-believing Christian, I wonder if there is indeed anything inherently wrong with it.

Consider the source.  After a quick Google search, it seems that Ralph Waldo Emerson penned those words.  Right off the bat we find that the phrase emanates from someone whose worldview was nothing akin to the Bible’s.    Now, if you want to use the phrase to remind yourself not to steamroll people as you make money, fine.  (Though I can think of a lot better phrases to do that such as “Don’t steamroll people as you make money.”  There.  Clear and concise.)  Don’t let Emerson’s philosophically pleasant sounding phrase obscure the truth.

For humanity, for each individual, life is most definitely about the destination.  There are two possibilities after death.  The first, which is the default destination for human kind, is Hell.  Hell – an eternal lake of burning fire that is not quenched and eats your flesh which is not consumed.  Obviously not the place you want to go.   You won’t know your friends in hell because hell is a punishment you must partake of alone.

Destination number two: Heaven.  This, my friends, is where the eternal party is.  Music, eating, celebrating with other believers, oh yes, and did I mention that it is the home of the eternal Creator.  Think of how beautiful the world is and then figure that heaven is so far beyond this that God won’t even describe it to us.  Destination – important.

What about the journey though.  That too is important because the journey determines the destination.  I’m going to say something politically incorrect (and lovin’ it) and say that all roads do not lead to heaven!

Just as there are two destinations, there are two journeys.  One, through a broad gate and down the broad way that leads to destruction (hell).  Two, through a narrow gate down the narrow way that leads to life (heaven).  What is the narrow way.  Jesus (who is God and therefore to be both listened to and believed) says in the Bible in John 14:6,  “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me.”  Get that?  He’s not only saying that He is the journey [the way] and the destination [the life], He even promises to provide signposts so you don’t get detoured [the truth].

How you live your life is important, naturally.   But money, morals, and meaning are nothing in the end if you don’t know the Messiah.

I don’t know what the driver of that car was searching for.  If it’s the meaning of life, I hope someone can point them to the Life.  Because it’s not just about the journey.  That’s only one part.  The part where you have the chance to choose.  Choose Jesus.  You won’t have to search any more.