Words for the Journey – The Mystery of Milestones

May 17, 2017 – Phil Christopher

Milestones… we all have them if we will take time to reflect. The term means an event or action that marks a significant moment or even change in a person’s life. Such marker moments can be seen as positive or negative. However, be careful before judging some event as a discouraging defeat. A failure or mistake can become a memorable milestone that changes the course of our lives for the better. Too many people look back and remember the past as a “millstone” that they drag through life instead of searching for the miracles and mysteries of milestones.

Milestones certainly occur in events like graduation, the first job, buying the first house, or the first child. A milestone moment can happen even when we hit bottom. I remember a friend who each November celebrates the milestone when she stopped drinking and trying to escape problems. She realized she was powerless and that her life had become unmanageable. She made a decision to turn her life over to Jesus Christ, trusting that only Christ could restore her sanity. Out of the dark pit she raised a milestone. However, milestones do not have to be that dramatic or earth shaking. Milestones can happen every day. It would be remarkable if we could start seeing daily milestones like those mile markers we speed by on the interstate. Each day holds the potential for change. Each day has its own markers that define us by the choices we make. But we can miss and speed by those significant moments. Thanks be to God for memory that can help us what we missed in the present.

Our lives are shaped by milestones that mark our journey. Some moments of reflection might bring grief. But they also can provide deep sources of gratitude and hope. The question: are you lugging around millstones or raising milestones? Gaines Dobbins said on his 75th Birthday, “As I look back on the twisting turns of my journey I see that God has kept his angels up late at night redeeming my life from destruction and charting out a destiny for me.”

Think about the milestones that have marked or changed your life. Were they events that seemed negative at the time, but have become memorable milestones for the better? Perhaps something bad happened, but God meant it and turned it into good. Where has God provided, protected, and encountered you through the milestones of the past? Do you carry “millstones” or see milestones? What milestones could you be missing today? Brave Journey…