The Way...sans maps or GPS

In general, I have a distinct aversion to using a GPS. The invention was possibly the summit of brilliance and annoyance all rolled into one fantastic and pricey package that offers the opportunity to get given incorrect directions in a voice that conveys less personality than the slam of my car door. Personally, I'd much rather just go the old fashioned way and use a map when necessary.

Bad directions aren't unique to using a GPS, however. In fact, there are times when I might prefer to capitulate to popular choice and use a GPS rather than attempt to follow people's directions. Case in point...

Scenario: Meeting a friend at the Battlefield Mall. Texting upon arrival.

Me: Hey, where are you?

Friend: The mall.

I shook my head and tried to quell the responses coming to mind.

Me: Yeah, you're also in Springfield, MO, but I could use something a bit more specific.

Friend: Macy's

In my experience, department stores like Macy’s on the mall have only slightly fewer entrances than the catacombs. There are dozens of departments, entrances in the mall, out of the mall, upstairs, downstairs.

Macy’s. Really?!

I finally got enough clues in the hunt to locate my friend, and by the time we were going to meet to leave I got a text asking where to pick me up. The golden opportunity to reply "outside the mall" fleetingly danced around in my brain, but I resisted the urge and answered, "Could you just pick me up on the east side at the north end by Hu Hot restaurant? I will be outside on the sidewalk."

Am I asking too much to request reasonable, detailed directions? Probably so. It’s probably why I can identify with Thomas’ question to Jesus in John 14. Right after one of Jesus’ most beautiful promises of going to prepare mansions, a place for each us, Thomas has to pipe up. Listen to the dialogue:

“And where I go you know, and the way you know,” Jesus tells the disciples.

“Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’” 

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”

The sad part—I can just hear myself asking the same question Thomas did. I want to know exactly where we are going and how we are getting there; is that so unreasonable? Do you have a map, Lord? I’d really like to know the ETA…What about a GPS? I know you know the latitude and longitude coordinates, so just plug those in and I’ll be ready to go.

I can see Jesus smiling sadly. They missed it. He had been showing them The Way and telling them where He was going for three and a half years, ever since His initial command “Follow Me,” recorded in eleven different places throughout the Gospels.

You see, if there is one thing better than detailed directions, it’s having someone lead you directly to your destination. No worries about taking a wrong turn, confusing one exit for another, or accidently entering the wrong end of a mall’s department store. Just follow the one who knows the way already.

When Jesus asked anyone to follow Him, it wasn’t merely “Let’s go this way today and see what we can find to do.” It was a calling that went far deeper. As they followed Him literally and figuratively He was showing them The Way; they saw it each day, like a map written in the dust of Capernaum or Nazareth or Jerusalem, and so, as Christ’s ministry drew to a close, He knew they had seen where He was going…and they knew The Way. It was simple—all they had to do was keep following Him.

So long after the days of the Apostles, I have a little Thomas inside me persistently wanting further directions. Lord, don’t you know I could get lost if I don’t have step by step instructions? Where are you going, and what is the way? Maybe you, like me, find yourself demanding detailed directions from God for your life.

I can just see Jesus smiling sadly. You missed it. Where I go you know, and the way you know. Remember that I said to follow Me? Just follow the One Who knows the way already.

...For the rest of your life

In general, I must admit, I have a low opinion of facebook quizzes, surveys, and apps in general. This is not just because I no longer have time to do them but because they have such a tendency toward the utterly frivolous and irrelevant. Who seriously cares "Which Converse Color" you are, or if you are, in fact, a potato? Do any of us need to take a quiz to find out how old we are? Apparently there are too many people with an unlimited amount of time and curiosity, and so there will always be those who must try to determine who they were in a past life or what zombie they will become.

For all their downfalls, facebook quizzes, surveys, and apps do occasionally give one something of a more serious nature to think about. And when I say occasionally I mean very, extremely rarely. However, one of those rare occasions was a question that was on a facebook survey I was filling out.

Let me clarify. Actually, it was a question that was not on the survey I was filling out. The questions were basic and general, things such as "Where is the coldest place you've been," and "Which food describes you best," until I got to one that read: "Do you want to live for the rest of your life?" I chuckled...like I have an option. Then I noticed I'd missed the word "Where" on the above line at the other side of the page. "Where do you want to live for the rest of your life" was a much more understandable question, but it was the one I thought I read that stuck with me.

Is there some option other than living for the rest of our lives? The idea seems to have an inherent contradiction in terms. It seems there simply is no way to avoid living for the "rest" of our lives--not even a car accident or suicide can prevent us from being alive as long as we are alive.

I pondered the notion only briefly before I decided the question wasn't nonsense after all. As I thought quickly past the purely physical and literal approach to it, I suddenly sat back in my chair and turned to make a note on my bulletin board. Immediately I knew I would use it as an illustration in the future.

The thought that struck me so forcefully was how valid the necessary pretext of that question is--that it is possible to not live for the "rest of your life." I know it because I walk streets dotted with houses full of people living pseudo-lives, carrying out their existence more dead than alive. The quip "I hope life isn't a joke because I don't get it" is all too real to them.

This isn't a local concern, however; it's the chronic condition of the human race. If it wasn't, why would so many people chose suicide to end the charade? Why do we drive ourselves in the pursuit of anything and everything that offers to give us hope and meaning--to put "life" in our lives?

Before I turn this into an entire sermon, lecture, or thesis, I'll cut right to the point--the solution. It comes in the form of a Person. In Him, the Word, was life, and He came so that we might have life more abundantly--a life that is alive.

It should follow then that the degree in which we have Him and His word in us is the degree in which we will live...and I mean really live, in its truest sense. I love the way this author puts it:

"The Word of God contains our life insurance policy. To eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God means to study the Word and to carry that Word into the life in obedience to all its precepts. Those who thus partake of the Son of God become partakers of the divine nature, one with Christ. They breathe a holy atmosphere, in which only the soul can truly live." (White, The Upward Look, pg. 78)

Did you catch that little qualifying word--truly? How much we truly live will be directly proportionate to the amount of "life" we choose to accept from the Word. There is a life that is not living, an existence that is not alive, but it doesn't have to be that way. There is another option, and it is found in Jesus.

So how about your life--do you feel 100% alive? Are there those days when you go through the motions, but you feel more mechanical than human? Has your life felt lacking in meaning, direction, purpose...and life?

Would you like to live for the rest of your life?