This past week I went to the Sanford Surgical Towers to pray with one of our members before her surgery. I was a bit early so I found a nice comfortable chair in the lobby to sit down and rest in. Although there was seating room for about twenty people, I was the only one sitting. After a few minutes a hospital employee who was walking past stopped and politely asked, “Are you finding your way?” I quickly assured her that I indeed was in the process of finding my way.
After she left, I began to reflect more deeply on her question. I wondered, are the people who sit in the section of chairs I was sitting in notoriously known for being lost? Did I appear to look like someone who wasn’t finding their way? Was she trained to ask that question? If there were ten people sitting with me, would she have asked everyone the same question? Is it okay to stop and rest along the way? Obviously by her question, it was clear that people who sit in those chairs haven’t reached their intended destination.
The Spirit prompted me to think more deeply about the question, now as if Father himself were politely asking me, “Mike, are you finding your way?” I began to reflect on my present journey, could I respond as quickly and confidently as I did with the hospital employee; “Yes, Father, I am indeed finding my way.” I wondered, am I confident of the current path I am on, or could there be a better way?
I began to think about Jeremiah 6:16a, “This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” This verse reminds me that there are two ways; a good way and a not so good way. Proverbs 14:12 supports this truth, “There is a way that seems right to man or woman, but in the end it leads to death.” (May it not be so with you and me 🙂
Jesus also had much to say about finding our way. In Matthew 7:13-14 we hear Jesus saying, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The road that leads to destruction is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”
Here Jesus teaches us that finding the “good way” is not so much about reaching a destination, but rather it’s about discovering a relationship. Remember Jesus words from John 14, “I am the way the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, except through me.”
So when thinking about finding “your way,” “the good way,” or the “narrow gateway,” I am so grateful that the Holy Spirit has revealed to me that finding my way is to be in relationship with Father through Jesus.
May it be said of us who gather to stop and rest each Sunday at ARC that we are indeed finding our Way, and in doing so, also find rest for our souls.
Joyfully following the Way,
Mike Altena