Where Are You Going?

It was advertised as a “flight to nowhere.” Australian Airline Qantas sold out the flight in ten minutes. A spokesman for the airline said, “It’s the fastest selling flight in Qantas history.”

It came during the Pandemic. They departed early in the morning and came back to the same airport seven hours later. It made no stops.

Buyers quickly bought the 134 available seats. They paid between $575 and $2,765 to fly on the wide body Boeing 787. That plane would normally be making long distance international travel—but on this day it just spent time flying, going nowhere.

The popularity of that flight is a snapshot picture of how so many people are living today. They are willing to pay a lot of money to “pass the time” and just fly around and go nowhere. At the end of the day, you are back where you started.

For many people, life is just a merry-go-round of meaningless activity. You get up in the morning, you go through the same routine, you come home at night and follow the same routine, and what have you accomplished?

Jalen Hurts was recently selected as the Offensive Player of the Year in the NFL. He was often asked about his challenges at the University of Alabama and his transfer to Oklahoma. I love his responses. His life was not just a “flight to nowhere”—he knew his purpose. When asked about specific quotes from a person, he said, “I already had my purpose before he had his opinion.”

Esther found herself in a precarious position when her whole race was about to be killed. Someone had to confront the king, and if she went into the king’s quarters without an invitation, it was death for her. Mordecai kept encouraging her to do it for the sake of all her people.

Esther thought about it. Mordecai’s words to her were, “Who knows if perhaps you were born for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14) Realizing her purpose, she approached the king, and ultimately saved her people.

God created us for a purpose. People who know and fulfill their purpose discover the greatest joy in life. Mark Twain said, “The two most important days of your life are—the day you were born and the day you found out why.” Do you know why you were born?

One day a man was given a prisoner to guard. When the authorities came for the prisoner, he had escaped. The excuse of the guard was “while I was busy, he disappeared.” (I Kings 20:40) We are not called to be busy, but we are called to fulfill our purpose!

I used to fly on Eastern Airlines quite often. Eastern was a real challenge to Delta in Atlanta. You don’t see Eastern Airlines now. Eastern got into the habit of doing a lot of good things, but not the right things. They failed to fulfill their purpose and, consequently, are no longer around. I still have some frequent flier tickets for Eastern Airlines!

When you get where you are going, where will you be?