Goals and Process

            There’s a certain poignancy at the end of Deuteronomy 3 that I don’t know I’ve noticed before.  The Lord had told Moses, “No promised land for you,” and that seemed to me to be the end of the story.  But Deuteronomy 3 shows that Moses really wanted to enter the land, pleading with the Lord to let Him see it and walk in it and experience it.  The Lord’s answer was a little harsh, “That’s enough out of you!”

            I think of people who give themselves in a cause and don’t quite see it to conclusion:  generals who win the war but not the peace; leaders who muscle through crises but don’t enjoy the success on the other side.

            Examples, we need examples.  I think of General Motors.  I’m no insider, but I kind of liked former CEO Rick Wagoner.  The things I read made him seem like a man who was pushing hard for the kind of changes that needed to be made for the corporation to succeed.  GM posted a profit last year for the first time in a long time, and you can argue that that happened because they went through a controversial bankruptcy.  You could also argue that the products that are bringing them back to profitability were in the works because of Wagoner’s leadership.  But he was shown the door before his efforts bore fruit.

            This next one is fictional, but I think it holds up.  At the end of The Lord of the Rings (the book, not the movie), Frodo, the hero, finds himself so deeply wounded by having carried the burden of the Ring that he can’t enjoy the peaceful resolution in the comfort of his newly freed and restored homeland.  It falls to his successor, Sam, to enjoy the results of their work.

            Now, in Moses’ case, the poignancy is even greater for two reasons.  First, he had been faithfully laboring for the Lord’s purposes for 40 years.  It sure seems that one little mistake is all it took to cost him his shot at happiness.  Second, he prays a prayer that is denied right then and there:  “You will not cross over.”  That’s hard.

            Sometimes the reward has to be in the journey, not the arrival.  Not every prayer is answered like we’d like.  I wish I had the kind of faith that was content to follow the Lord without the longing to accomplish something, to enjoy His presence and His service without wondering when the blessing would come.  It’s tough to be a goal-oriented guy with a process-oriented God.