Let's just get there!

Here's a reality check about sailing:  when the wind is blowing directly from the point of destination you must tack (zigzag back and forth in a sawtooth fashion) to reach the mark. 

You trim your sails (draw them in tightly) and make repeated turns and eventually get to your objective.  Needless to say, if folks are on board who don't understand that reality, you can have alot of muttering going on:  Hey, skipper, just go to the mark!  Why all this back and forthstuff?  When will we get there? 

Folks may become frustrated unless the skipper can somehow instill confidence that, indeed, the craft will reach its destination.  Now stop grousing and trust the one who actually knows the safest and most efficient way to complete the journey. 

This sailing reality came to mind as I read today's reading from Exodus.  I can imagine that a bird's eye view of the trek might have looked like a zigzagging course (maybe with a few curly cues thrown in just for variety!)  How many times do we lament the seemingly wandering or lagging progress of the church?   Nothing moves quickly in the church, folks say. 

Perhaps that is because there are critical lessons to learn.  Or maybe, just maybe, God wants to form and mold us in ways that might seem (to us) to be irrelevant to our idea of where we want to go and how we want to get to our objective. 

Perhaps, just perhaps, our objective is to be with God.  When we set our sights upon God and have no desire other than to Be In Christ, all of the other purposes and meanings and objectives of our life are ultimately fulfilled. 

The path may seem indirect (to us).  We may mutter and grouse, saying "Let's just get there!"   But the path of faith is one that reminds us to be at ease, confident in the guidance of the one who goes before us.