Some of the greatest spiritual and professional accomplishments on earth involve taking a journey with God the Father. Moses served and fulfilled one of God’s great purposes on earth and his journey with God lasted for forty years. (Genesis 34:7, NIV). Indeed, every person who receives Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior embarks upon a journey with God. That journey is for a lifetime and even extends beyond the cessation of life.
Recently, I passed my Motorcycle Safety Foundation Course, became licensed and have embarked upon a journey of motorcycle riding. During my course, I was introduced to the concept of Search, Evaluate, Execute…or S.E.E. for short. S.E.E. is an acronym for a learned process of seeing, assessing and responding to traffic, the road conditions and the environment around the motorcycle rider. Being able to S.E.E will help the motorcycle rider enjoy the adventures of riding while remaining safe.
S.E.E. is also a concept that we can use on our faith journey. When Moses was preparing for the end of his journey on earth, he exhorted the children of God as follows:
“See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20, NIV)
Based upon Moses’ exhortation, we see that no matter where we are on our faith journey, be it considering a new job, a new ministry, a new relationship or any life changing transition, it helps to listen to the voice of God, and hold fast to Godly principles.
For the motorcycle rider, during the Search phase, the rider’s goal is to visually recognize anything that could affect and control safety. During the Evaluate phase, the rider is assessing the road conditions and determining what steps he will take to adjust his riding i.e. braking, speeding up or slowing down. During the Execute stage of the ride, the rider knows precisely what should be done to ride through the road conditions successfully and immediately performs the appropriate maneuvers. As believers in Christ Jesus, when we S.E.E., we are simply exercising the Word of God that declares in Philippians 3:14 (NIV), “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” When we S.E.E. on our journey, through Christ, we can eliminate the doubts and uncertainties that trouble us in our faith walk, including pitfalls the enemy sets up for destruction.
At the core of every spiritual journey is the revelation that it is a journey of process. None of us are perfect in our decision making. However, as we S.E.E. we become more mature and aware of God’s expectations in our decision making. Whatever journey you are on, know that a spiritual journey complicated with apathy toward the Word of God will only lead to an accident and a broken heart. However, a journey filled with consulting the Word of God, like a road map, obeying and trusting God, even when we don’t understand, is a lifelong adventure that will bring true understanding of the world and a much more abiding faith in the one who gave his life for us. As you embark upon your journey, I say as the French…. “Bon Voyage.” That is to say, “Good Journey.”
Elder Jerome Woods, II is the husband of Alana M. Woods and is the son of the late Jerome Woods, Sr. and Larina Woods. He is a Washington, D.C. native and associate Elder at High Calling Ministries pastored by George W. Hawkins, Jr. Elder Woods is a graduate of The George Washington University (1994) where he received his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature with minors in Sociology and Latin Classical Humanities. Elder Woods received his Juris Doctorate in 1997 from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.
