I am writing this week’s Tea Time devotion from the airport in Houston, Texas. When I set out my travel plans months earlier, I never expected to use the Houston International airport at all. I’ve been here two times in the last three days, and the last time it was for about six hours due to weather at my destination! In fact, for the last four days I have been traveling back and forth from two different Central American countries, and only one of my four days of flying proceeded as planned. I’ve had a lot of time to ponder airline practices; and I can come up with a multitude of suggestions for what they could do better, but that is not my job. The long, strenuous, and unexpected travel has driven home the instructions Peter gives to Christians in his two letters:

“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16) “So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” ( 2 Peter 3:14).

My Christian life is like the journeys I have been taking these last few days. I face the unexpected, the unwanted, the difficult and the surprising on my Christian journey as well. I know where I want to be—my destination is Christlikeness; yet it seems I never arrive. Just as I arrive eventually, more tired, bedraggled, and smelly than I intended, I will arrive at Christlikeness one day in heaven. One day I will truly be holy through Christ’s power fully released in me.

My lifetime is a journey to heaven. Each day presents another opportunity to focus on what Christ would have me realize about Him, God and the Holy Spirit. Delays on my spiritual journey are constant, yet they don’t feel as unbearable delays by flight cancellations that keep me from my destination. In fact, I often zone out to the fact that my spiritual life is not what it ought to be or has the potential to be through Christ. It’s so natural not to think of life the way Peter instructed all Christians to think.

This brings me to my gratefulness for the delays in travel the last four days. They challenge me to consider why I am so desperate to arrive at my destination that I don’t fully take in the journey and why in my spiritual life I am so desperate to be comfortable on the journey that I don’t think about my destination. Paul said that if I only understood the real reality of my destination, I wouldn’t think twice about the drudgery of the journey (life on earth).

Romans 8:18 says: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

And he should know since he was given a glimpse of heaven.

What would happen if you chose to think about your eternal destination—being with God in complete holiness? How can you prepare yourself today for holiness? Every day is a step on the journey to heaven for all Christians. It is a long journey for sure, but the destination is what motivates us to crave holiness more and more.