Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter - 2012

As we approach Ascension Day and then the significant day of blessings, Pentecost, I am reminded of a few words from a motivational speaker:  "It does not matter where you are coming from.  All that matters is where you are going" (Brian Tracy).  

For a believer in the Good News the journey through Lent, the 40 days of the Easter season and then the 10 days until Pentecost Sunday is an annual experience.  A non-Christian once questioned me:  "what is it about you Christians that you have to go through these days of penance and other Easter events every year?"  For a non-believer as well as a believer it is good to hear that question.  It is good because it my bring us to ask ourselves what meaning there is for us in going through these spiritual exercises every year without missing a beat!

Tracy's thought might be a simplistic answer to the non-believer's question.  For each person these days might provide the opportunity to ponder "where I am going?"  I know that the "I am" of this year is not the same "I am" of May 178, 2011.  Certainly a year older but am I a "year better" on my spiritual journey to me the one and most significant "I AM"?

Tracy writes that the homing pigeon serves as an example to men and women who know where their goal is; who know how to make it to their one, true home --- being with the Lord Jesus.  Each year these spacial days of late winter and Spring are the days when we return to our "home."  This is why we re-celebrate each year.  What would our national spirit be if we celebrated Memorial Day and Independence Days just every ten years or only on their 25th, 50th or one hundredth anniversaries?

So, in the words of George Eliot:  "It's never too late to be what your might have been."