Introduction--A Word about the Journey
Introduction
A Word about the Journey
Reading is much like a long journey. You are excited in the beginning, simply because you are getting started. Anticipation is a motivating thing. But it isn’t long before the journey begins to feel longer than you thought it would. Midway through your trip, you just can’t wait for indications that the end is near. You begin to celebrate when you see the sign that tells you that you have only a few miles to go.
This book is like a journey, but a particular kind of journey. I want to warn you that reading A Quest for More will at times feel like driving from Kansas to the Pacific coast. It’s a great journey, but you no more than get settled in for the trip and you hit the Rocky Mountains. It’s easy to get discouraged as you’re climbing peak after peak!
What is that mountainous passage that I am talking about? Well, most of the early chapters of this book expose the many, many ways we all tend to forsake the big kingdom for the little kingdom. This part of your journey through the book will be painful at times. You will feel as if you have successfully scaled one peak only to have another in front of you. But don’t give up! Once you have the bitter peaks of humble self-examination behind you and have accepted that you have a problem, the sights and sounds of God’s solution that are at the end of the journey will look all the more beautiful to you.
As you begin this little journey, remember: It is a sweet thing that we serve a dissatisfied God who has destinations in mind for us that we would never choose for ourselves. It really is a good thing that he will not be satisfied until he has gotten us exactly where he created us and re-created us to be. Most of us would have been satisfied to stay at home, and many of us would have quit the journey long before it was completed. But our heavenly Father won’t give up until each one of his children has completed the journey.
So, journey with me, and be aware that there are mountains up ahead. But don’t be discouraged. The ocean will soon be in view, and the ardor of the mountains will make your arrival at the destination all the sweeter.