“Teach me your way, O Lord and I will walk in your truth.” (Psalm 86:11)

It’s become a culturally accepted response that when you elicit the statement “No way”, the person to whom you are speaking responds by saying “Way.”  In other words, if something is unbelievable and you get excited, you may evoke the sentiment that there is no way this could be.  Someone tells you that of course this is so . . . that, in fact, there is a way. The term ‘way’ can be understood by several definitions. For instance, it can mean the manner in which someone acts (“It’s just his way”).  It can be used to describe a distance, such as “He was raised a long way from here.”  Or it can reference a system or a method of doing things, as in “We’ll try it your way first.” It can also mean a road or a path as evidenced in this scriptural passage when Jesus responds to His disciple. Thomas asks, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:5-6)

I love the scene that is set in one of my favorite commercials crafted by State Farm Insurance.  A young man tells his buddies he is never getting married, while the next scene shows him with a jeweler who is giving praise for his selection of a beautiful ring. On an airplane with his wife at his side overhearing a baby crying, he states that they are never having kids, flashing, of course, to the next shot with the wife in labor. In their city apartment, they vow to never move to the suburbs. The next scene shows them in the front yard of . . . you guessed it. “We are never getting one of those” pointing to the car that they will soon own, followed by him saying “We are never having another kid” and then her response, “I’m pregnant.  At every corner of life, it’s as if he is yelling out “No way” and someone or something pops up and says, “Oh yes – Way!” The best part of the ad, however, occurs at the very end as he is sitting on the couch surrounded by his family echoing the words, “I am never letting go.”  One wonders if he finally gets it and has found his way. Fade to the voiceover which states – “For all the ‘nevers’ in life – God is there.”  Well actually, the voice says State Farm, but this is my rendition – not theirs.

There are many great examples in scripture of God providing a way for the faithful. There is no better illustration than when God tested the faithfulness of Abraham (Genesis 22:1-13). God asked him to take his only son Isaac to a mountain and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. Abraham did as God requested and when asked by Isaac where the lamb was for the burnt offering, Abraham responded that God would supply. Just as Abraham draws his knife to slay his son whom he had laid on the altar, God provides ‘the way’ – a solution in the form of a ram. “So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided’” (Genesis 22:14). Songwriter Don Moen has penned these lyrics to a contemporary chorus: “God will make a way when there seems to be no way. He works in ways we cannot see. He will make a way for me. He will be my guide, hold me closely to His side. With love and strength for each new day. He will make a way for me.”

For many of us, this is a difficult process. We are much more familiar with the lyrics of the Frank Sinatra song “My Way” than we are with those in the previously mentioned chorus. In our Journey we choose to rely on our own life experience, and we do not allow our faith to move beyond our own comprehension. If we are patient, we will come to understand that the Lord often acts in ways which transcend human reasoning. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9). So in ways that often will not make sense at the time, we must learn to put the faith that we say we have into practice. In doing so, the word ‘never’ disappear from our personal vocabulary.  When someone says, ‘No Way’, we will instead cry out ‘Way’ – and we will be in full agreement with Abraham, certain that the LORD will indeed provide.

REFLECTION:  Try to remember a time in your life when in the face of hopelessness and despair, you were able to discover God’s truth and promise. Have you been able to remember God’s provision for an additional personal experience or in offering help to another who is struggling in their journey?

A NEW LOOKUP  DEVOTION IS UPLOADED EACH WEEK. THE NEXT WEEKLY POSTING WILL BE ON SAT., APRIL 23, 2016.  COMMENTS ARE WELCOMED.