IT'S THE RELATIONSHIPS ... STUPID

Just started reading Len Sweet’s newest book 11 (“11: Indispensible Relationships You Can’t Be Without”). Actually, I’m reading the introduction for the 4th time – when has that ever happened?

He opens with the great debate – is it the journey or is it the destination that matters? It took me back to my grad-school days; the late Lew Smedes (one of the greatest “ethicists” of our time) breaking it down by telling us that, at our core, we all held to one of two world-views. We were either “Amtrak” (destination) or “Greyhound” (journey). He walked us through the perils – and pleasures – of each. I knew at that moment, I was a “Greyhound” – the journey was far more important to me than the destination.

Which is why I’ve had to read (and re-read) Sweet’s introduction so many times: I think I missed the point.

Sweet poses that is not really either-or. Journeys act like Destinations and Destinations behave like Journeys. To debate which one is better is moot. To debate them at all actually misses the point. It’s not about the journey, nor is it about the destination. It’s about the relationships along the way.

It’s the people that we choose to journey alongside with, as we move toward a destination, that matter. Those are the relationships that mold us; define us. Those relationships, as we choose to vest into them during this short time (our little “72 trips around the sun”), will be the relationships we carry into eternity.

It’s the relationships … stupid. It’s the relationships.