Of course, most of us recognize this as a commonly referenced passage of the Bible, specifically a quote from Jesus. The Bible connoisseurs among us know the passage is John 14:6 and will be quick to point out that the rest of the quote is “No one comes to the Father except through me”, so let me go ahead and make that acknowledgement before sharing what’s on my heart.
I’ve recently had some very interesting wonderments about this statement. I spent a great many years with a certain disdain for organized religion. While I certainly have times marked with good memories while participating in church and related activities, deep down I was plagued with bothersome feelings for which I could not quite formulate words. For years, I disguised these feelings as an intellectual curiosity, under the guise of “seeking to understand”. I thought I had to understand it with my head before I could believe it in my heart. Understanding was the cause and belief was the effect.
As I meandered along my own personal journey of discovering what a connection to God actually felt like, I also started to discover the source of my previous disdain. And this quote from Jesus lay at the core of it. As I’ve grown in my relationship with God, I eventually came to put words to those previously indescribable, bothersome feelings–this inner observation that the purveyors of religion believed they were in sole possession of the Truth.
So herein lies my wonderment: Is is possible that what Jesus meant by this statement was that he, in his essence, was his own way; his own truth; and his own life–that his source for the peace, prosperity and goodness of life was the God-source that laid within him? And is it possible that what he was offering with this quote was that the same was true for all of us? That we all are born in the eyes of God and thus all have an innate source of God within our being; one that we can harness as our own personal Source of God to help us find our way, our truth and ultimately learn how to live our life in service to that authority within us?
I believe the statement by Jesus stands as it is.. He said ” I am the Way” that means you have to believe in Him (and no other person of type of god) Matt 7:14 states that the way to heaven is narrow.
Jesus said ” I am The Truth”. John 8:32 says you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free (from sin).
Jesus said “I am the Life”. Jesus overcame death and He is the only One who can offer us eternal life.
I was going back thru some of my Twitter posts and I found this one: “When our underlying belief is that we are or have to be the God of our own life, we are relegated to live in the prison of self-service.”. It got me to thinking about this post on “The Way, The Truth and The Life” and some clarity came to mind. We are both of God and before God and there is both God’s will for our lives and our own self-will. It is the distinction between being empowered (allowing God’s will to permeate our lives and accepting that responsibility) and that about which I wrote above; and being willful (trying to run my own life driven only by my own selfish interests without regard for God’s will or the greater good) and that about which I tweeted.
I can only say that I tried to make this work, and for me it was a rabbit hole… I lack the spiritual perfection to be a way… a truth… or a life on my own… although I tried to be that for probably about 16 years. On the other hand if I ask God as I understand Him to come in as Holy Spirit… then I have a chance… of the Way and the Truth and the Life…