One of the former students — Eric Siewert — from Berean Church in Minneapolis (where I was serving before coming to Sonlife) is a student at Wheaton College. He recently published the following article in the Wheaton Record and I thought it was very interesting. Here it is…

I remember lying in my bed at eight years old and being afraid of Heaven. At eight years old, Heaven was a vague concept representing the end of life that I couldn’t quite seem to grasp. Something about Heaven being the end scared me.

Ten years later, I still can’t claim to have a good grasp of what Heaven is, how it works or what it will be like. And even 10 years in the future, I will still have a fear of endings.
True, I don’t worry about Heaven as much as I used to. Somewhere along the way, I was able to let it go and leave it to God.

But my ongoing hatred of endings embodies itself in the end of journeys and characters and in my love of “continuation” stories; sagas that go past the first book, stories that are too interested in the journey of the characters to come up with a fitting ending within the pages of one tome.
I know I’m not alone in my love of this type of journey, either.

Proof of the popularity of “continuing” stories is all around us. We see it every time we enter a bookstore or check out a sequel to a popular movie. Masses of people flock to these journey-oriented tales. Millions of readers are attracted to the seven-book phenomenon of Harry Potter that will be completed this summer.

Something inside of us recognizes the importance of the journey in life even though we so often seem to care more about the end than we do about how we get there. This especially rings clear during the school year—for a student, life is marked by weekends, the end of quads, the end of semesters and the end of the school year. Dates are set for events and when the advertisements go up and our excitement is bubbling—we forget about everything else and start counting down the days.

It’s as if we think life will be magically complete when we hit that end point. This attitude reminds me of the books I read as a little kid which always seemed to end with “and they lived happily ever after”—as if it could really happen that way. Life can’t be Heaven on earth, but if we step aside and accept that then we can enjoy the beauty of the journey.

The end is coming. No matter what we do in life, there will be an end—it’s inevitable. But rushing towards it and anticipating it more than caring about what we do with our lives just adds needless commotion to our lives. Our days are marked by rushing on to class, Saga, and chapel, but at the end of the day we’re still in bed with worries and aspirations—the same worries and aspirations we would have even if we took life at half the pace.

Instead, we should acknowledge a lifestyle and mindset that “embraces the journey.” The appeal of the continuation stories shows that it isn’t that hard to embrace the journey because we’ve already been wired to enjoy it.

No one’s journey is the same so there is no blanket secret to enjoying the experience of life. I certainly can’t give you a three-step formula for embracing your personal journey.

Still, sometimes when we look too far ahead, it seems we only end up holding ourselves back. If we are constantly looking too far down the road, we’ll forget the journey and without the journey there can be no end. Perhaps it’s best to enjoy the journey as God intended, a day at a time.
Stephen King writes in his Dark Tower series: “I hope you came to hear the tale, and not just munch your way through the pages for the ending.” He’s referring to his own book, but I think that God’s up there saying the same thing to us—I hope you came to live the life and not just munch through the days until the ending.

Congrats Eric… It is so good to see you pursuing your dream to be a writer!