“When applied to the spiritual life, the metaphor of a journey is both helpful and somewhat misleading. Helpfully it reflects the fact that the essence of spirituality is a process–specifically, a process of transformation. Unhelpfully it obscures the fact that we are already what we seek and where we long to arrive–specifically, in God. Once we realize this, the nature of the journey reveals itself to be more one of awakening than accomplishment, more one of spiritual awareness than spiritual achievement.”

(Benner, David G. The Gift of Being Yourself. Expanded ed. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books, 2015, p. 3)

A journey, pilgrimage, or walk is something that takes time, evolves, progresses, processes. But then that means that we aren’t “there” yet, that we still have effort to expend, work to do. Instead, Benner says, we should be aware that we are even now in God’s hand in God’s land. You could say that in faith and in Baptism we are now exploring within the borders of God’s Kingdom. We have arrived at our goal. Now and not yet.