During the 1890s, Oliver Wendell Holmes was the chief justice of the Supreme Court. One day he was traveling on a train and had all of his papers spread out on the seat across from him, next to him, and even on the floor. He was totally consumed in studying the papers when the conductor came up, interrupted him, and asked him for his ticket.
Holmes looked in his coat pocket, but couldn’t find his ticket. Panicked, he frantically began to search among his papers but couldn’t locate it. The conductor recognized the chief justice and told him not to worry about his ticket. The Pennsylvania Railroad could wait until he arrived at his destination to purchase his ticket.
Exasperated, the chief justice looked up at the conductor and shot back, “Sir, I don’t care where my ticket is! What I want to know is where I am going!”
It is easy to get consumed by day–to-day, fast-paced living and lose track of who we are and where we are going. Are we running harder and harder, but still standing in place? What is the purpose of life—where are we going?
“Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods…whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.” 1 John 2:15,17