Does the journey or the destination matter more?

[Wootah]

Does the journey or the destination matter more?

[ttruscott]

Does the journey or the destination matter more?

The destination...

[Tcg]

[Replying to post 1 by Wootah]

The journey is the only thing we have.

Once we reach one destination, we select another until we reach our final destination which is oblivion.

We can't experience oblivion, so if we don't enjoy the ride to it, we have wasted the only experience we will ever have.

It'd be a shame to waste that one experience on fantasy. Sadly, many do.

[Furrowed Brow]

[Replying to post 1 by Wootah]

It's the journey.

As I get older I am more aware of my mortality. Many of my actions and thoughts are predicate on the idea that I am finite. It brings things onto focus.

Having organised, attended and spoken at several funerals in the last few years my thoughts about life after death revolve around having a really great funeral for myself. A moving eulogy, poignant music, and then later everyone sits around sharing funny stories about me as they get slowly more drunk.

I wish for my son to thrive and have a great life when I'm not about.

That's is about as far as my concerns about the destination extend.

[2ndRateMind]

[Replying to post 1 by Wootah]

Good question. Coming tp believe in the Christian faith is often mistaken for a destination. But really, it is just part of our journey through life. The destination is death, and whatever, if anything, might come after. So, this leads me to think that the journey is more important, whereby we get to express our faith, if any. But the destination is not irrelevant, in that it lends that journey a degree of urgency.

Best wishes, 2RM.

[jgh7]

The two seem deeply linked to me in Christianity. Caring about one necessitates caring about the other and they both matter greatly.

But I personally focus more on the journey. Heaven is something to look forward to, but the journey is the present.

[2ndRateMind]

It's interesting how Christianity has tended, down the ages, to focus on the destination. 'It doesn't matter how poor you are now; you will be rewarded in heaven', etc. It's not a sentiment I have much time for. Accepting poverty amongst both rich and poor alike is defeatist clap-trap. On the other hand 'it matters greatly how rich you are now; the most rich will be punished in hell' seems to me much more pertinent to the wealthy of the developed world, and have equal biblical support in Jesus' tale of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus at his gate.*

But then, the church has been traditionally rich, and consorted with powers that be who are also rich, and this might have provoked some degree of reluctance to preach the gospel as it is, rather than as the establishment would prefer it to be.

These days, the global village is such that each and every one of the absolutely poor (income less than $2 per day) are beggars at our gate. And Christians may well choose to express their faith by loving them, our neighbours, 'as ourselves', as Jesus commanded.** And if we do, we will ensure that, at the very least, their basic economic requirements (starting with enough food to eat and clean water to drink) are met.

Some would disagree with this agenda; 'the poor are poor through their own fault', or 'if we feed the poor, they will not work'. Can't see it myself. Humans are known for their unlimited ambitions, and I do not see this failing just because the poor are no longer hungry, malnourished, starving or sick unto death from water-bourne parasites and disease. On the contrary, were such burdens lifted from them, I would forecast a general boost to the world's economy, as has happened among the developed nations.

So, I would not say the destination is unimportant, only uncertain. But the path of our proper journey, unique to each of us and similarly important, but more urgent, is often hidden amidst our selfish desires to amass wealth and power for ourselves, and ourselves alone, and so is obscured. But who knows? If we find our path, and follow it, we may well also find that we save the world, and ourselves, simultaneously.

Best wishes, 2RM.

*Luke 16: 19-31 KJV
**Mark 12:31 KJV

[marco]

Does the journey or the destination matter more?

Stevenson in Virginibus puerisque said: "To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive,�

If death is the end product then we should rejoice with Horace and "carpe diem", seize hold of the day we have. We are mere tourists taking pictures; the chat and the scenery and our contribution to fellow travellers are the happy ephemera of our brief sojourn. If we travel in hopeful expectation of an encore, so much the better.

[Wootah]

Is the training for a war more important than winning?

Is the study for an exam more important than the exam?

Is chemotherapy more important than being cancer free?

[2ndRateMind]

Is the training for a war more important than winning?

Is the study for an exam more important than the exam?

Is chemotherapy more important than being cancer free?

Fair point. But if the ultimate goal is 'a good life', these are all (however important), sub-goals or, in project management language, 'milestones'.

Best wishes, 2RM.