on direction

I think one of Jesus' favorite things to pull out of his sleeve is to give us really simple answers to really complicated questions.

For example: Thomas asks a question of Jesus in John 14 that I think is really complicated. He says, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

I read that today and immediately thought that Thomas must have been giving a prophecy of my current prayers, which sound a lot like, "Jesus, I don't know what you're doing or what you're going to do, and I have no idea what the next year of life will be like...so how am I supposed to do anything? How can I do anything when I don't know the way?"

Here's how Jesus responds to Thomas.

"I am the way."

To which I want to say, "really, Jesus? That's what you've got? To the big question of what to do with my life and where I should live next year and what paths I should pursue and all my cries for knowledge that I just want you to freaking give me so I don't have to feel like I'm walking around blindfolded in the dark? You don't have anything more?"

And he doesn't.

Of course, in the context of that passage there is much more happening. Because the way Jesus is headed is toward the cross, which ultimately is a very complicated place he begs us to come and die. But for the sake of what I was feeling today, and I think also for the sake of a doubting Thomas, that answer was very simple.

We are not called into knowledge. We are not called to be able to draw out a map of where we are headed with perfect precision and clarity. We are called only into the depth and length and height and breadth of the love which is Jesus Christ, who is all the road-map we need.