The Destination

Maybe you’ve heard it said, “The journey is the destination.” Sounds deep, right? I believed it once myself. But it’s just flat-out wrong.

Every journey has a destination or else it’s not a journey — it’s aimless wandering. Come to think of it, there’s a lot of aimless wandering going around these days with people who have no sense of purpose, no sense of belonging, and no direction because they have no ultimate destination in their minds or hearts.

Do you know what your ultimate destination is?

Those of us who might be stuck in aimless wandering may believe that we are merely journeying toward death and nothingness, but that’s not our ultimate destiny. The ultimate destination of our lives, the full purpose for which we have been created is Heaven.

Living Is Journeying

We are all in a state of journeying. On the simplest level, we journey from childhood to adulthood. I have been amazed and grateful to witness and be part of my two nephews’ journeying from the hope of their parents to the life growing in my pregnant sister, from newborns to infants to toddlers, from children to teenagers to young adults. They’ve been journeying together through the same college these last two years — the oldest one graduating this spring!

It’s a wonder, it’s amazing, and it’s continually unfolding, this thing we call life, this journey that each of us travel in different ways. I don’t know what the specific stages will be my for my nephews. None of us know exactly what lies ahead for us in the next five or fifty years. Whatever our earthly plans are, we all know that unforeseen detours can arise, new discoveries can be explored, and our human plans can change. For instance, I planned on having my second book in the hands of a publisher by now.

That didn’t happen.

We humans adapt our plans to changed circumstances, to missed opportunities and new opportunities, and we adjust our expectations of what our journeying will be like.

But let us never adjust our expectations of where our journeying will ultimately take us.

Destination: Heaven

My ultimate destination is my ultimate destiny — my eternal destiny. And there is only one destination predestined for us humans: everlasting bliss.

I mean, what’s not to like about the sound of everlasting bliss?

Sometimes, however … I admit it myself … sometimes it’s difficult to believe in Heaven. We can’t see the destination of Heaven now, our earthly eyes aren’t capable. That’s why we walk by faith and not by sight. We might even have a hard time believing where the earthly journeys of people are taking them just in the here and now. But what if we could see into the not-too-distant future at any given moment in a person’s life? Then, we could come upon someone all by himself, puking his guts out on the side of the road and see that he is becoming a marathon champion. We could listen to the sobs of a mother mourning the death of her little daughter and hear her becoming a best-selling novelist. There’s a dark side of life too: we could watch a very young man diligently drawing a detailed village and see the developing of a cruel dictator responsible for the massacring of millions.

Every disappointment, despondency, delight, and decision can take each one of us to an earthly destination that may look extremely different than the individual steps that brought us there, for better or for worse. Now consider the whole of a human life. Not only the whole life of the earthly body journeying from womb to tomb, but also the whole life of the soul journeying from womb to the unknown. If a zygote looks nothing like the middle-aged teacher that she has become, we can only imagine what that elderly retired teacher is becoming when her eyes close for the last time and then open again into eternity.

Needing Directions

Sometimes, we may lose sight of the eternal destinies to which we are traveling, or we may not want to travel down the road of sacrifice that leads to everlasting gain. We may wander off in the wrong direction or stay too long in one place or become despondent because we forget where we’re going or because the road seems too difficult. Then we are in danger of missing the mark completely and ending up in everlasting misery. Hopefully, we remember that we have roadmaps to guide us, the Bible and the Catechism, or become inspired to continue moving onward with the help of the Sacraments of the Church. Hopefully, we find a fellow traveler or two kindly walking with us, helping us along the way.

Hopefully, we don’t become too proud that we refuse to ask for directions.

At any one moment, it could look like we will never make it to our eternal destiny — we certainly can’t make it all by ourselves. Sometimes, it’s difficult to imagine that the detours, setbacks, disappointments, griefs, sorrows, and sufferings of this earthly journeying of ours can ever end up in perfect happiness. But it can. And it does. That’s the reason for our existence — to journey on to perfect joy.

The Lenten Journey

As we’re traveling along in the specific journey of Lent, with our sacrifices, penances, and extra prayers and alms giving, let’s remember Lent’s destination is Easter. Maybe your traveling has been a little slow so far and you feel like you need to move faster and do more to catch up. Have no worries. God is merciful. And the heart is very fast. Whatever detours or sidetracks or overlong rest stops you have taken in this journey of Lent, a simple aiming back toward the destination and asking for help from God and His Church will get you where you need to go.

Our whole lives are like that. Heaven is only a heartbeat away. As we continue in this journey toward ultimate union with God, we will struggle along the way, we will suffer as we continue becoming more and more like Christ. May we all joyfully keep in our minds and hearts the ultimate destination of this journey called life — the destiny of everlasting joy.

© 2025 Christina Chase

---

Feature Photo (of me in Canada) courtesy of Dan Chase © 2014 Dan Chase