Don't Get Lost; Follow In The Way!

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."  (John 14:1-6 NIV)

Years ago, I took three teens from the correctional facility I was working at on a hike to see a waterfalls as a reward for the progress they were making. They were all from inner city Detroit and had never seen a waterfalls. They had never actually been hiking in a real woods, either. We took the well worn path with the tourists down to the bottom of the falls. But, instead of going back up the same way I decided to take the little footbridge across the river and climb the rocky hill through the woods on the other side to get back up to the parking area.  The young men started acting a little nervous. Finally, one of them asked me where the path was and how I could know the way through the woods. I guess, they had begun to think that maybe we were lost in the woods forever. I told them not to worry the path was there. Just because they couldn't see it, I could, as I'd been traveling this way since I was a little girl.

Thomas asked Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life."  Jesus is the way to our Father's house.  He is the path we are to follow. In order to follow that path, we must get to know Jesus. Yes, about him; but, we must also get to know him personally. When we've just begun to follow him in and into the kingdom there may be times that we get a little lost because we don't know the way as well as we could or should. But, as time goes on and we get to know him more and more each day, each year, there will come a time when we will know the way even if our eyes were blindfolded. Knowing the way so intimately comes with traveling the path day by day. It comes with walking with Jesus every minute of every hour. It comes by learning about him; by hearing about him at Worship or wherever we may be; by reading and studying about him alone or in Bible Study groups. Knowing him intimately comes by staying in communication with him; by speaking with him in prayer and by listening to him in the silence of our prayer spaces. We come to know the way to our Father's house intimately by seeking to follow in the way of Jesus. And, in order to follow him, we must know and trust him.

If we are not prepared to follow in the way, how can we profess to be Christians? How can we witness to others? Who would believe that we are Christians if we have no knowledge of the way in which we should be going? If we're busy leading others off on other paths they will certainly recognize that we are not truly followers of Jesus. If we know Jesus and not just about him; we will know the way. We will not get lost because we will follow in the way that he leads us.

Jesus said that he was the way and the truth and the life – no one could go to the Father except through him. So if he is the way then those of us who profess to be Christians ought to be following in the way that he would have us go.  May God grant us the wisdom to stay on the path.

God's Peace - Pr. J