Getting off one stop too soon

The danger in worldly achievement is that one may settle for it. Poor and unsuccessful people do not have this problem. In AA they talk about the phenomenon of “hitting bottom,” defined as the place an alcoholic must reach before he admits he needs help. Being accomplished in worldly matters may cover up the need we all have for Christ and postpone our reaching for Him.

I know a man who has achieved a significant amount of success at a young age. It is difficult for him to hear the gospel from me—I can feel the wall.

A book called Power for Living from the Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation contains the story “Getting Off at the Wrong Place” by Jamie Buckingham that illustrates the phenomenon. The author was on a flight from New York to his home of Melbourne, Fla. It seems there were two women from Italy on board who spoke no English, and when the plane made a brief stop in Tampa they did not understand the flight attendant’s announcement that the passengers to Melbourne should remain in their seats. Spotting palm trees out their window, the female Italian tourists thought they had achieved their objective and so got off a stop too soon. Buckingham muses:

“What they failed to realize was that they were 120 miles short of the goal. They had gotten off in Tampa thinking their dream of a lifetime was at last fulfilled, only to discover they were lost in a huge airport with no loved ones to meet them. The flight attendants finally found them wandering dazed through the strange terminal. … Someone finally found a baggage handler who spoke Italian. He explained they were not where they were supposed to be. Only then did the women rush back on the plane, eager to go on to their final destination.”

He continues:

“Most of us are like that. For some reason … we get off at the wrong destination. We equate money, security, and prestige with success. … Few of us ever arrive at that ultimate success because we are too busy rushing through the airport of material success.”

I am hoping the young man I know will not have to “hit bottom” before he realizes he has gotten off one stop too soon, and short of the destination marked “True Life.” For now he is dazzled by the palm trees and thinks he wishes to go no higher. Little does he realize that what he supposes to be the joys of his high-flying lifestyle are nothing to be compared with the adventures God wants to give him. The question Buckingham leaves the reader with is one we might all ask ourselves from time to time:

“What are the things that cause you to get off in Tampa when your real need is to go to Melbourne?”