Are We There Yet?

The four worst words a parent is destined to hear on any journey. Not just particularly long journeys but pretty much any trip. The length of the journey only determines the rate at which the question will come. On a journey of any serious length the rapidity with which the inquiry is directed toward the parent or parents present increases over time until it finally reaches the maddening crescendo of about once every three or four minutes. Of course by that time the parents have been mentally reduced to mere mumbles interspersed with the occasional “give it a rest” (or something along those lines) in reply.

And though these four words are the bane of most parents' traveling adventures, it really is everyone's question. Phrased in a variety of ways it still comes down to “are we there yet?” We ask ourselves this question in ways like the following: Am I there yet in my career? Am I there yet in my desire to lose weight, get more fit, spend more time with my family, or watch less television and spend more time reading? Am I there yet in reading the Bible more, praying more regularly, or simply being with God? Am I there yet?... “There” is always out in front of us and because we are often so focused on “there” we never quite spend any time “here,” wherever “here” might happen to be.

I began to go through a season like that when All Saints was delayed in getting into the building we were trying to rent for use as a church. “When will we get in the building” was just another version of “Are we there yet?” that I was asking of God. But what I found, as God delayed that process, was to begin not so much looking to the “there” ahead of us but to the “here” where I was. Sure we had to make some adjustments and worship in homes for a season, but we grew closer as a result. Sure it was sometimes a frustrating season of digging through red tape and negotiating to work out the details so we could finally take occupancy of the building, but we learned so many valuable lessons about others and ourselves.

But the most important thing for me was that as the process unfolded it became increasingly less important to be “there” because I began to understand that wherever “there” was going to be, when we got “there” we would find that God had already been there. That He was, and is, always with us in our “here-s” and our “there-s”. Will we – will I – still ask from time to time, “Are we (am I) there yet?” I imagine so. But hopefully as I continue to walk with the Lord, I'll grow in my understanding and my faith that He is the one who is always there and here, and here will become the exact place I want to be because it's the here-s that will get me there. In the end what I came to understand was that when I was asking my heavenly Father: “Are we there yet?” His answer was always the same, “Of course we are there, because I am here.”


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