How can we know the Way?
We sing “Come, follow me, the Savior said, then let us in his footsteps tread.” Yet for me, the biggest challenge I have faced and continue to face in life is how do I know that I’m on the right Path? How do I know if I am treading in Jesus’ footsteps? How do I know what I am supposed to do?
My church gives a clear answer:
Follow the Prophet,
he knows the way.
If I follow the Prophet,
I’ll never go astray.
I don’t have to doubt.
I don’t have to question.
All I need do is obey,
and I’ll be happy all day.
Well, it’s not great poetry, but at least it rhymes. And it provides comfort to so many that by following the prophet we don’t have to worry about whether we are doing the right thing.
Except…life has a way of putting challenges in front of us, where our certainties become no longer certain. Sometimes, indeed most of the time, we are faced with situations that don’t quite look that easy: choices between two goods, or choices between the lesser of two evils.
Then, as well, sometimes we are faced with the fact that church leaders have led and do sometimes lead us astray, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. When our cognitive dissonance arises, when we begin to have doubt, we are taught “Stay in the boat, we may not have the answers now, but ours is the only Way to eternal life in the *future* in the Celestial Kingdom.” So we set aside our doubt, our concerns, with the hope that in the future, we will go to heaven — a place we cannot see and do not yet know, by following a way that we cannot fully see or understand.
Curiously, Jesus didn’t say, “Come, follow the prophet”. Jesus didn’t say, “The first law of heaven is obedience.” We said that. Men said that.
Instead of this: “’Come, follow me’, the Savior said.”
But what, then, is the Way to follow Jesus?
The song of our heart continues, “Then let us in his footsteps tread.”
Sounds simple. Well hmmm, the devil, it seems, is in the details.
When Jesus was in the upper room with his disciples, he told them something interesting: “Wither I go ye know, and the Way ye know.”
This is a remarkable statement. At this point, the disciples didn’t realize fully who Jesus was, or who they were. They thought of themselves as on a Way *to* something. They thought they were talking about an afterlife, where we will participate in many mansions.
Jesus is saying something profoundly different: the place where Jesus would go — the place where Jesus *IS* for all of us: we *know* the Way that all of us must follow, we also *know*. The word used in scripture is important: in the text of John, it reads “εἴδω”/“eido”, meaning “to see, thus by implication, to know that something is”.
Wait a minute. My head just exploded. Jesus is saying that we can *see* the ultimate destination, “My Father’s House.” Jesus is saying that not only can we see, but we have already seen, and thus *know* our Father’s House. And Jesus is saying that we *already KNOW* the Way? Justifiably, the disciples were profoundly confused.
Thomas asked, “Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the Way?”
Indeed. How *can* we know the Way?
Jesus answered, but with perhaps the most remarkably important statement of doctrine:
“I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
This is perhaps the more important statement of First Principles in scripture. “I AM” is the name of God. It is the ground of being. To be God is to Be. Thus:
Being and the Way are One. The Way is that which gives power to and promotes being. When we observe the laws of nature, when we see the movements of the heavens, we observe God — the power of Being, the I AM — moving glory and majesty and power. All things bear witness of “I AM the Way.” The Way is what gives us life. It is the very Power of God, and that which makes god God. It is also in our divine nature, the light of Christ, and the Comforter residing within us. The Way is what makes us both human and God. The Way is the Christ, thus Jesus saith, “I AM the Way.”
Being and Truth are One. Truth is knowledge of things as they *ARE*, as they *WERE*, and as they *ARE* to come. That which is — the verb “TO BE”: the I AM — is entirely about truth, so when we embrace truth from wherever it may be found, we are embracing I AM.
Being and Life are One. Life can be defined as the ability to create and grow, to learn, to reproduce, to become. When we realize that life’s basic building blocks are about creating and growing relationships, then that being itself is about growing and creating relationships. When we separate ourselves from others, our relationships die. When we separate our spirits from our bodies, we die. Life is connection, death is separation.
So, how can we know the Way?
It can’t be that hard, for Jesus said, “the Way you know.” It’s within us. It’s intuitive.
If the Way is what gives us life, and if life is about connection, then we know the Way when we connect. In fact, Jesus gave the essence of this connection:
“A new commandment I give unto you: that ye love one another as I have loved you.”
It wasn’t really a new commandment. It was the First Commandment. and the Second commandment. And the greatest commandment. It’s the commandment upon which all else is based. In fact, Jesus did provide, after all, the explicit answer to “How can we know the Way”:
He said, “By this, shall men know ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” To be a disciple is to be one with the Way.
Love is the Way.
Did I mention that this post was about Love? I do that a bit. Probably because I know I fall short on this. Because sometimes I get love wrong. So how do I get it right?
When we practice possessive love
When our love makes us envious or jealous
When we are boastful in our love
When we are “Nice” as an act to obtain love
When we gratify ourselves and think it’s love
When we love our ambitions
When we are controlling in our love
When we dominate in love
When we see love as compulsion
We are not on the Way of Love.
Such “love” does not connect us, it binds us, controls us, and ultimately separates us, because it cannot last.
We often get love wrong.
But the Way we know, is the one we truly feel inside. It is the Love that gives us Life.
When we practice godly lov
When we see others as equals,
When we are enduringly compassionate (“Long Suffering”)
When we are kind
When we rejoice in truth and honesty
When we are gentle and meek
When we our love is unfeigned
We are on the Way of Love.
Such love gives us life. It connects us without compulsory means. It endures because it liberates us.
And when we practice such love, when two or more are gathered in the Name of Love, there I AM — there the Christ, and the Father, are in the Midst. Our Father’s house is here, now, among us. And we know it, because we experience it every day when we Love.
Such Love is the Way we already know in Truth, for it is deep within us giving us Life, it is our natural desire and need to be connected, to be One.
How do we know the Way? Jesus told us that we are to love one another, as Jesus has loved us. He said, “Whither I go ye know, and the Way ye know”:
Love is the Way, the Truth and the Life.