It’s not all about the journey …

Carl McCunn planned every detail of his excursion into the remote wilderness of Alaska.

After a short stint in the Navy, McCunn, a talented wildlife photographer, settled in Anchorage, Alaska. It was from this vantage point he made plans to spend several months along the southern margin of the Brooks Range on an expedition to photograph wildlife there.

So it was that in March, 1981, McCunn paid a bush pilot to land him at a remote lake about 225 miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska near the Coleen River. With attention to detail, McCunn brought with him 500 rolls of film, 1,400 pounds of provisions, two rifles and a shotgun. It would be several months later, when the same plane did not return to pick him up, that McCunn realized he had given great detail to undertaking his journey, but had failed to make plans for leaving.

“I think I should have used more foresight about arranging my departure. I’ll soon find out,” he wrote in his personal diary.

McCunn hoped family or friends would eventually become concerned about him when he failed to return. They did, but too late. Nearly a year later, McCunn’s body, along with his diary, were found. He had committed suicide before dying of starvation and exposure to the elements.

McCunn’s fatal error is one repeated by people around the globe — failure to exercise foresight in arranging for their departure. The Apostle Paul described this focus on the present life this way:

“For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control,” Philippians 3:18-21.

Are you giving adequate attention to your departure from this life, or are you among those Paul describes as ” … they think only about this life here on earth”?

Scotty