How's Your Pilgrimage?

Had to make a drive yesterday.  I needed to pick up my mother and take her to a medical appointment, then return to my house by going to a school where my daughter was playing basketball in the last regular game of her 8th grade season.  It was a big ole circle and each destination was out of the way of the appointment places and times.  The driving time was about 4 hours and 20 minutes and I covered over 200 miles.  I had things to do at each destination, yet I discovered that most of my time was spent during the journey.

Great wisdom comes from the Scripture, but what a reminder I received this morning when I read Psalm 84:4-5.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising You.  

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

I have found myself asking a few questions as a result.  Is your heart set on the destination or the pilgrimage?  Am I too busy to get to the destination that I forget about the journey?  It seems, according to this verse, that what matters is the journey itself, not the destination.  As I reflected on my drive yesterday, I thought of how much I enjoyed everything I encountered along the way.  Sure my visits and time at the various destinations were valuable, but the journey along the way prepared me for the visits and appointments.  The time spent traveling, the thoughts, the scenery.  The journey.  Maybe that is what it is all about, the pilgrimage as the Psalmist puts it.  Sometimes it is not the distance that matters nor the mode of travel, it is what you do along the way.  

Lord, help me embrace the pilgrimage. Help me, whether I am going two steps or two hundred miles to know that it is the journey that matters.