Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Journey

The record of the oldest person in the world to receive a college diploma is Nola Ochs. She received her Bachelor's degree in general studies and history from the Fort Hays State University, which is in the state of Kansas. It was a wonderful moment when the Governor Kathleen Sebelius awarded the degree to Nola Ochs and the crowd of 2176 graduates broke into a standing ovation at her achievement, which included Nola Ochs' own granddaughter Alexandra Ochs (the 21 year old graduated with her) . The ovation was actually against the rule as according to the rule no one would applaud or create any sort of mayhem in the graduation hall until the entire class was awarded the degrees. Nola Ochs was 95 years old when she received her Bachelor's degree on May 14th 2007. But that does not seem to be the end of her educational career. If things go right, she is even planning to pursue a Master's degree.

We've all had something that was really important for us to complete. Can you remember the last time that you wanted to achieve something and put everything you had into it? It might have been studying for a degree, training for a marathon, working toward a promotion, building something by hand, etc.

Whatever it might have been - you put everything you had into it. Perhaps it even consumed your daily thoughts and you even scheduled activities around it.

Yeah, we've all been there at least once.

That's the journey...and the journey is the part that we remember the most. Because once we achieve our goal (the destination), we feel relieved and proud of our accomplishment. Ultimately, it's the journey that molds us into the person that we needed to be in order to achieve our goal.

Think about how this translates in our relationship with Jesus. What if we put everything we had into following and obeying His word? How do you think you would change as a person? If we are going to be consumed with something, let's get consumed with the Holy Spirit. It's only then that we start to appreciate the challenges and difficulty of our journey. Then the Lord will reward us when we reach our final destination.

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life"will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
Mark 8:34-36

Each person has their own unique journey through life and not all of us are blessed with longevity. So, the question is...are we doing the things that we need to do now, in order to reach our final destination?

God bless you. And this is for His Glory!

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