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People talk so much about life being a journey that it’s a standard way to talk and think about our lives.
But is life like a journey?
Journeys have a destination. Journeys are about getting from one place to another. Sure, they’re more than that; we should enjoy the scenery as we go. But in the end, if there isn’t somewhere we are headed, then we don’t set out on a journey.
Life doesn’t have a simple destination like that – unless it’s death. And death isn’t a culmination, a completion of life so far.
Unless you’re Elizabeth Kubler Ross.
Or maybe even in the Christian story – if death in Christian thought is not a destination as such, then it is at least the transition point to the Christian destination. Maybe it is the expectation of eternal reward or punishment at the end of life that has pushed this metaphor of life as a journey.
And that’s a very individualistic Christianity – it doesn’t factor in Christian hope for the renewal of the Earth, for the establishment of God’s reign on Earth.
Nathan Hobby, a biographer in Perth 
Nathan, I was reading this last night and got me thinking today whilst I was driving strangely enough. Life is a journey, I believe. When people say, “Life is a journey” I believe they focus on the travel through life rather than a destination. Death is the obvious earthly destination, but life is what you make it. I believe people people can focus on a destination within life, such as retirement, financial goals, family goals.
I sometimes visualise the ‘life journey’ as an actual journey, say by foot. If I were to walk around Australia for the rest of my life – what would I encounter on the way? I would meet people, see places, experience nature, become ill. For some people, they do move around through life, living in various locations.
In this day and age, many people of our generation do travel, and consider it a high priority in life. The common pilgrimage to the UK/Europe for early twenty somethings has now extended far and wide, with the experiences valued highly.
So, if they say “Life is a journey’, who are ‘they’ and where are they taking me?
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I think the term “Journey” is being meshed with the term “Travel”
Travel implies a destination, and the action of moving from one place to another.
Journey’s never really end, they are merely the accumulation of experiences and Travel. Indeed their are destinations on a Journey, but Journey’s don’t necessarily require an end all destination, especially when associating the idea to a period of time as long as someone’s life.
Dictionary.com Definition of Journey
Journey-period of travel
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