I stood a mere few feet away reading the jacket of a book while overhearing the animated conversation of two men. With hands in their pockets jingling the spare change hidden within, they spoke of the many different career paths their respective lives have taken them. One went as far as to share the sentiment that he has had his fair share of cruddy jobs just to pay the never-ending bills.

But this new job, the one ushering him into blissful retirement, is the right job. He’s waited a lifetime for such a position and is counting down these last years before his freedom.

I placed the book I was holding back down and moved my way down the aisle. My heart felt saddened that this man didn’t know that the starting point to his freedom was but a prayer away, not years of labour as he was anticipating.

How often we try in vain to look into the future and see what lies ahead. But we simply cannot determine where the future will lead us if we are allowing God to brick the path. Life is not a straight line but a meandering curve that sweeps through lush valleys, bridges over mountain tops, and circles through dry deserts. And each new adventurous path we follow begins with a new starting point. A new bullseye upon the blueprint of our life.

The man with the loose change in his pocket was expressing the longing of every human spirit. The longing that was designed by God and placed within the soul of every person who has ever, and will ever live. He was desperate to embrace a new starting point recognizing that it took much time, effort, and cruddy life experience to get there.

But we are hoping for something we do not have yet, and we are waiting for it patiently.
Romans 8:25

Perhaps we all seek the starting point because we view it as having a single identity: hope. It is hope for what could be, hope for what would be, and hope for what should be in our life.

Let us step back and recognize that the starting point of our faith is all three wrapped into one. And when we find it… bullseye. We’ve hit the centre of that which matters, that which sustains us, that which carries us when our legs are too crippled to walk the path. It is the belief that there exists One who holds the keys to the kingdom opening the door to our freedom. And His name is Jesus.

Father, in my vanity I try too see the future, but I need to be content with my present. You hold the whole world in your hands… and the hope for what will be is already written upon it. Help me to find the hope and freedom I seek within the faith you have given me. In Jesus name, amen.