All through life, we work toward goals, and when we achieve them, we often discover that we’re not done yet. The progress we’ve made helps us realize that we have other mountains to climb: more work to do, more learning to pursue, more love to give, more of our own character to refine.
Few people have understood this concept as well as the early pioneer settlers of the American West. In their journals we feel their growing pains as they walk mile after mile of their long and arduous trek. Their hope and faith in a promised valley of peace helped them endure hunger, disease, and discomfort of every kind. But minutes after finally arriving and unloading their wagons, they must have realized that their journey wasn’t really over. The wilderness would have to be tamed. Houses would have to be built. Seeds must be planted, and even if all went well, it might be years before they actually tasted the full fruit of their labors.
How often have we stood at such a crossroads in our life, realizing that the point toward which we traveled was only a way station for further growth and progress? Maybe we thought our troubles would be over once we graduated from high school or college, once we got married, when we found a new job, or when we paid off the mortgage and the kids were grown. After meeting those goals, though, we saw vistas of growth and opportunity that we didn’t know were there before. And we faced a decision: we could become complacent and linger in our present state of accomplishment, or like the pioneers, we could plow forward with faith, break the soil with new resolve, and plant seeds of progress.
Milestones are best marked by moving forward with our lives, understanding that the journey’s end is really just the beginning of another kind of journey.
Program #4063