ARRIVING

I have not arrived, no sir. My journey seems just as vague to me at times perhaps as when first starting out. My resolve occasionally wavers and my discipline dons the youthful visage of days past. Tripping upon the cobblestones of the dark path ahead, I grope feebly to see again the road clearly. Who will lead me in this bleak estate? Who will guide my spirit, feeble from the flight? The passage from the man I once was to the man I long to become seems unending. Though years have been spent pursuing, the ache and yearning in my spirit tells me I am not there yet.

Groveling and loathsome thoughts do not abandon a man just because his years would suggest to others the contrary. Older men, if they are wise, do learn to temper them in time, however, and redirect those passions, fits of anger and days of melancholy state with a certain amount of composure towards things more suiting, lovely and proper. But the thoughts themselves, come regardless of age or station in life. It is those same thoughts that are the telltale litmus of the unfinished business ahead.

That is the test of a man. Being born with a conqueror’s spirit, he is domineering of most of the challenges laid before him. By his very nature, he needs a sense of completion in any task he sets out to do. So when in the cumulative journey of life, that place of arrival---that place of spiritual completion---is always illusive and seemingly never quite attainable, a man becomes disheartened by the unconquerable. There is no hope there. He sees through a glass darkly and his hope, in all of its entirety, is laid up in a day of completion---whether or not he fully believes that day will ever come.

This is the evidence that eternity is set in the heart of a man. His DNA spells it out loud and clear. He is made for heaven and his soul is longing for this place of completion. When it comes, it will replace---in one fell swoop---all of the striving to attain and all the meager attempts to satisfy his soul.

Man has been told to live life to the fullest and enjoy his existence here because there is nothing else. The deep longing in his heart tells him otherwise---there IS more. Though the reason for that angst may be misdiagnosed by the mainstream, it remains deep in the craw of every man. Most men may not be able to explain it, but it is there. They have heard of heaven, but to actually hope for such a moment in time escapes the rationale of the rational. If you ask me of such a place, such a season, such a final destination---I have to say that, while it will never exist in this mortal shell, it DOES exist. The restlessness in the heart of a man is the proof.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; Ecclesiates 3:11