Asking for Directions

It is a man’s worst nightmare.  A simple question needing to be asked can create such an argument with the opposite sex.  Men, you know what I’m talking about.  We hate to admit being lost.  We despise the act of asking a complete stranger to help us solve this problem.  We will do everything possible to avoid making the stop to ask for directions to a place we should know how to get to.  Thomas may have felt this slight embarrassment when questioning Jesus on what road to take in order to get to Heaven.  He admitted not knowing these directions, or doubting what he had heard.  But Jesus responds with a very good route to take.

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.  And you know the way where I am going.”  Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?’  Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’”  John 14:1-6(NASB)

The one thing I do not hear in these directions is where to make a turn.  I think it’s because there is no turn, no alternate route, no detour and no map.  In fact, Jesus makes it very clear how to find our way to “My Father’s house.”  We just need to follow these very simple directions.  Some other things that I don’t hear from Jesus is that this route will be the shortest, easiest, less stressful and well-marked or popular route.  I do not hear any promises of taking the easy way out.  What I do hear is Jesus explaining to His faithful followers that there is only one way, one route, one road to take. 

If you are like the average person, you want to think that you obviously know where to go and how to get there.  You feel that no one can have the sense of direction  that you have.  We all like to feel as if we are expert navigators that have no need for maps, Garmin, corner gas stations with weird looking clerks, or other sources of presumably “trusted” information.  We need to realize there is only one trusted source, one trusted route, one trusted way to our Heavenly destination.  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  When Jesus says that no one, and He means no one, comes to Heaven, or to the Father, but through Him, He is speaking directly from God. 

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.”  John 14:10-11(NASB)

We have no other way to Heaven outside of believing Jesus Christ is just who He claims to be.  We have no other route to take outside of accepting Christ for who He is, and praising our Holy Father for what He did for us through Christ.  We need to do this in order to remain on the right road to Heaven.  When we feel we know a better route, a better road to take, we make the mistake of not trusting our God to lead us down the right road. 

We need to decide it’s time to pull over and ask for directions.  Our God is waiting behind the counter.

“in the world, not of the world”