Do you know, as well as you know anything, that you will be taking the trip of your life at the end of your earthly life – that you will be on a trip to eternal life? If you harbour any doubts about this, the sound reasoning in the Meaning of Life Video Series may put those doubts to rest. If not, might it at least be safer to conclude that the trip is your destiny? After all, if eternal life is not a reality, no problem. Next? But if it is a reality, can it be in your best interest to not do your best to adequately pack?

Since no one knows your departure date, should you start packing your bags without delay? Maybe, but since no one knows what you’ll need on the trip and at your destination, how can you know what to pack? Who can you turn to for guidance?

Do you know, as well as you know anything, that Jesus was God Incarnate as we establish, with sound reasoning and research, in How Can a Man be God? If so, might His teachings be the best place to start? Even if not, might they be, at least, a good place to start?

In one of Jesus’ most powerful teachings - The Parable of the Sower - He teaches that we need to pack a full understanding of the Word of God which is showered on us as a field is showered with the seeds of the Sower. In Jesus’ explanation of the parable in Matt 13: 19-23, He lays out what keeps us from achieving that understanding: the next idea that flies into our minds, snatching the seed; our abandonment of what the seed produces when we become aware of its implications and/or the earthly pressures and concerns that choke it, until the seed dies in our minds. We need to overcome all these things that keep us from “hearing” the Word. We need to accept it and produce a crop of insights from its seeds.

Of course, we don’t really “hear” the Word. We must discover it in our minds. But how, you ask? Might the insights you discover in Become At One with Creator and Is Your Creator Awaiting a Response to Its Constant Outreach? help? Once you master “hearing” God’s Word, might it be best to pack a thing of two each night? Do you find, as I do, that it’s difficult to pack everything for a trip at the last minute?

But how can you tell if you’ve packed everything you will need? Jesus gives us several ways of discovering things you may have overlooked. In Matt7: 7-11, Jesus advises us to continually ask God to tell us what items are missing from our packing. God wants to be sure we want His Word before inundating us with it.

In Luke 10: 21, Jesus tells us we need to clear our mind by asking as a little child, whose mind is not cluttered with ideas, implications, pressures and concerns.

In Matt 13: 12, He tells us the more items we discover we’ve missed, the more missing items we will discover. Would it not be tragic to miss the whole trip solely because we missed packing critical items?

In Luke 13: 6-9, He tells us it’s never too late to start packing. He will keep at us until we start.

Might it be time to get on our horses and start packing?

Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author of the Amazon Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.