Where are we going?

In 1976, Diana Ross sang and popularized the song, Theme from Mahogany. In my High School it was a tradition for the graduating class to select their class song and the chosen selection was performed by our choir. The Theme from Mahogany was the song selected by my graduating class.When you look at the lyrics from this popular song, you will understand why my Senior class selected this song:

Do you know where you're going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to?
Do you know...?

Such is the theme for Journey Place this week. Where are we going? This is more than a question for Journey Place, it is a question that each one of us need to ask of ourselves time and time again. The future trajectory Journey Place takes will depend upon the needs of the gathered community and the movement of the Holy Spirit. What I think would be more interesting is to reflect upon our own personal and spiritual journey -- the one we hope Journey Place can be an important part.

In High School we believe we are invincible, we are filled with pride and with a sense of personal accomplishment, and we believe there is a world of opportunities just waiting for us to discover, but we quickly learn that we're really not ready for the world. Instead of asking the tough question, 'do you know where you are going...', we settle for an unhealthy attachment to our High School and to our teen-age years. When we were in High School, the times were simpler and we felt safer because we were protected by our parents and we lived our lives chasing fantasies that hardly resemble the world of an adult. In addition, we have been brainwashed by our culture to live for the moment and we don't give enough time to think about tomorrow because we believe as our culture has taught us that tomorrow may never come.

Once we were standing still in time
Chasing the fantasies
That filled our minds
You knew how i loved you
But my spirit was free
Laughin' at the questions
That you once asked of me

I believe that our "stuck-ness", our penchant to mark time is because we haven't asked the spiritual questions -- the questions that can make a the difference between coping with life or living in despair, between the acceptance of our mortality or our unhealthy attachment to our past, or to answer the question, "Why am I here?" At the risk of over-using a well worn metaphor, I would like to suggest that a healthy person is like a three-legged stool: Our physical, emotional, and spiritual being must be in perfect balance. If one leg is missing the whole person falls and it is my belief that the reason there is so much sickness, so much despair, so many "adult children", so much greed and distorted egos, and so much loneliness in our world today is because our western society has neglected the spiritual leg of the human stool for three generations or more.

Do you know where you're going? Are you happy with what life is showing you? Do you know? And so I babble on with my thoughts on the question, 'where are we going?' For Journey Place that will unfold in due time, but what about you? Is your stool balanced? I wonder.