Life is about the journey as much, if not more than the destination.

We have just returned from our first long-stretch road trip summer vacation. When we look at the time we traveled, we drove our little family and I 1400 miles in less than 11 days, each journey spread out and planned to not involve multiple long hours in the car, but still we had 4-5 hour stretches. Through it all, the kids were great, the wife was great-we all had a great time enjoying the roads. The kids with their various electronics, my wife and I with time to connect and chat.

But through it all, I found I was constantly in the thought process of making sure to enjoy the journey. We can get our minds so wrapped into where we are going, we forget that there is a process to get there that is where most of the time is spent.

In the movie Click starring Adam Sandler, he focus on that very idea, eventually realizing that the boring parts of life that he fast forward’s through are where life really is. He says at one point:

“ He's always chasing the pot of gold, but when he gets there, at the end of the day, it's just corn flakes.”

I am a huge Beatles fan, and one of my favorite Lennon songs is Watching the Wheels. In it, he says:

“I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go ‘round and ‘round, I really love to watch them go. No longer riding on the merry-go-round, I just had to let it go.”

The end, the finale, the place we are going to-when all we do is focus on that, we miss so much. On our journey, we would have missed a bear in a tree, a deer jumping a fence and numerous funny moments with our kids. Our life is that-when we focus on the voyage, it lets us enjoy the life God gives us and the story we are weaving. So I hope that in your daily living and moments that you take the time to stake your flag and make a memory that lasts and literally stops you to smell the roses. Because when we stop chasing the rainbow, we see our prizes are really right next to us, and always have been all along.

Where in your life do you need to slow down and enjoy the journey?