A reflection on John 14:1-12
Sometimes we feel lost. Life has its ups and downs, its twists and turns and we aren’t always sure of how everything is working out or where exactly we are at on the journey.
As Christians, our first prerogative, our main goal & aim, is to get to Heaven. Sometimes we get bogged down with earthly cares and worries and lose sight of the goal. Sometimes we have our eyes fixed on that goal, but feel our own weakness and sinfulness that deters us from that path to eternal life that we strive to remain on. We ask questions and seek answers to life’s most difficult and probing questions. We seek meaning, purpose, and direction in our lives. And Jesus tells us where we can find all of the answers - He IS the answer. He tells us that He IS the way, the truth, and the life. If we seek Him, and live our lives centered around Him, we are on ‘the way’, we have ‘the truth’, and we have ‘the life’, we have Jesus. We have everything.
Knowing this, we often still question things that life throws at us, wondering if we are always making the right decisions, if we are truly doing the will of God and not simply our own. I am reminded of a song by a Catholic artist Matthew Baute. There is a line in one of his songs where it is said (as if Jesus if speaking): “If your heart longs to please Me, you’ll be on the right road.”
So the question is: Whom do we long to please?
To whom do we expend the most energy trying to please? Is it our spouse? Our kids? Our boss? Ourselves? Sure, it is good to please our spouse, our kids, our boss, etc. but who do we first long to please? If our heart is first fixed on God and on growing in love for Him and knowledge of His unfathomably deep love for us, then everything else will fall into place; because then all of our actions will be motivated by love for God - not for ourselves or for another person - and all of these other people in our lives will benefit from our union with God and receive God’s love through us. In this, we can then rest in the knowledge that we are ‘on the right road’. So as we go through this week - and every day of our lives - let us remind ourselves to seek Jesus first in ALL things, knowing that He is all we need and is our way to life… our way to ABUNDANT life in this world, and in the eternal life to come.
“...I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” ~John 14:3
*Photo Credit: http://melissapagedeutsch.com/paths/
