The Way to the Place

In John 14, we receive one of the most powerful promises of all time,

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God, and trust also in me.  There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.  If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?  When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.  And you know the way to where I am going.”  V. 1-4

Thomas struggles with these words.  He wants to get the place God has prepared for Him, but despite Jesus telling him that he already knows the way to the place and what the place is, Thomas replies to Jesus,

"No, we don’t know Lord….We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?"  v. 5

Jesus replies back,

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: No one can come to the Father except through me…” v. 6

In these scriptures, we see many powerful lessons.  The most important lesson is that God has a special place prepared for us if we believe on Him.  This life is not the end of all things, but is just the waiting before we get to our eternal destination.   I could stop right there and it would be enough.  However, I want to share another lesson that I received from these scriptures.   In our life here on earth, God always has a place prepared for us or many places for us.  I like to think of them as mini steps we take or little stopping places we make in our journey toward our eternal destination.  We often get anxious about those places or dreams that God places inside of us.   Like Thomas, we have questions about the place that God has prepared for us.  When are we going to get there?  How are we going to get there?  What will the “place” be like?  Who will I meet when I get there?  My current situation seems so dark so how it will it be possible for me to get from this point to the next?  What is my purpose?  How will I get out of this situation?   Sometimes, these questions can drive us quite mad.  However, Jesus answers Thomas just like he answers us with a simple answer-   I am the way, the truth and the life. The truth is that Jesus is the answer to all of life’s questions.   If you want to know the way- Jesus is the way.  When your reality tells you that something is impossible –Jesus is the truth.  When you don’t feel like you can take another step, Jesus is the life that keeps you going.  We never need to look outside of Him.  In addition, it is the not really the place that is important, but Jesus Christ who is the way to the place, the process and the means by which we get there.  I heard one person say, it is not the final destination that matters but the lesson we learn, the people we meet on this journey called life. I also propose that it is not the small destinations in life that are so important but the process and the relationship with Jesus that we build along the way.  My encouragement to you today is that if you are struggling with questions, turn to Jesus who not only has all the answers, but IS the answer to everything.   It is easy to get distracted worrying about all the questions, but quiet those voices and focus on Jesus.  Set your affections on Him ( Colossians 3:1-2) and not the earthly distractions.  He will get you to where you need to be.

A quote to consider:

…I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903