The Way Knows the Way

Young at Heart Message

For anyone who has ever moved to a new town or city, or even simply to a new part of the city, you know that it can be difficult to navigate your way at first.

Until you get to know the area – the roads, the turns, the landmarks – it can be quite a challenge.

When I first moved to Calgary, I had only been here one time previously.

And, that one time, I did not drive myself anywhere.
 
Many kind people from our church board drove me around town when I needed to be somewhere. But, being driven around an unfamiliar place doesn’t lend itself well to learning the area.

So, when I arrived here officially and crossed over that threshold into the city of Calgary, I had no idea what to expect – not really, anyway.

I was not only learning a new city, but I was learning how to understand kilometres instead of miles, new road signs, and a city much larger than any city I’d been in before.
 
I had no idea what a “playground zone” was, and those darn signs aren’t very noticeable if you’ve never seen anything like them before.

Also, similar “school zones” where I’m from were marked more obviously, and you only had to slow down if children were present.

Here, I learned quickly that I needed to pay attention to those areas, and slowing down was mandatory, unless I wanted a hefty fine. Luckily, I didn’t get caught speeding through those areas when I didn’t know I was supposed to slow down!
 
When Erick and I met, I had not been here quite one year yet. I had become somewhat more familiar with the city, but I still relied heavily on my GPS.

One of the things he was excited about was showing me all around town. He also lived in the South, and I was just getting to know the North part of the city and relying on my GPS a bit less in that area.

The South was mostly an entirely new area for me.
 
One of the benefits to me of meeting someone who is intimately familiar with Calgary is that he knew his way around. It came easily to him, and because he knew his way, it made it much easier for me to learn my way, too.

Having someone to help gently navigate a new world is helpful! It was also helpful to have someone who wanted to show me some of the cool things this city had to offer.

I no longer had to figure out what might be fun to do here in Calgary. I didn’t feel like a tourist as much anymore.
 
Instead of bumbling around by myself, trying to learn about the things there are to do here, I had someone who was proud of knowing the city well enough to be able to suggest fun things to do together.

What a joy to have a “guide!”

Now, two years later, I feel like I know the city pretty well. Certainly not perfectly, but there are lots of places I can get to now without using my GPS. I just “know” the way!
 
“Knowing” the way is nice when it comes to navigating a new city or a new place. And, having a guide who knows the way is even better.

But, there are other aspects of our lives that we can better navigate when we have a guide. Specifically, I am talking about our spiritual life.
 
The Message

You may or may not know that I have been working toward a graduate certificate in Spiritual Direction over the last two years or so.

I submitted my final paper for this program on Friday, and I technically graduate this coming Friday.

And one of the things I have learned through this program is that navigating our spiritual world can become much easier with a guide. And we are all quite familiar with the most famous spiritual guide.
 
Jesus was a spiritual guide, and Jesus is one of our spiritual guides.

There are many others throughout Christian history who have been spiritual guides, and many of us consider people we know to be our spiritual guides as well, but Jesus ranks pretty darn high on the list!

Jesus is our equivalent of a person familiar with a new place who can help us get where we are going, spiritually speaking.

Today, we heard a passage that is likely quite familiar to many of you.
 
Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to his Father’s house to prepare a place for each of them. And, they know the way to where he is going.

And the disciples, in true disciple fashion, say “How can we know the way?”

And Jesus responds with “I am the way, the truth, and the life!”

Jesus is the way.

In the program I just finished, we were introduced to a beautiful song called “The Way Knows the Way.”
 
In this song, Lyndsey Scott sings:

You don’t have to know the way
The Way knows the way.
You don’t have to plan the way
Trust the way
Feel your way
The Way knows the way.

This became a mantra for us throughout our program, and we were often reminded, especially when faced with uncertainty or doubt, that we don’t have to know the way or the final outcome.
 
The Way knows the way.

Jesus is the Way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus knows the way.

Jesus is our guide when we are in unfamiliar territory. When we are uncertain. When we are facing something new, something unexpected, or something scary.

We spend a lot of time in our life worrying about what’s to come.
 
We worry about outcomes of our health, our finances, and global events, just to name a few examples. In essence, we are constantly worrying about the future.

But Jesus reminds us that we don’t need to worry, because the Way knows the way. All we need to do is trust the way.

Much like all I needed to do when I met Erick was trust that he knew the way. I no longer needed to worry about how to get around the city, because he knew. He was my guide.
 
Similarly, when we try to navigate the twists and turns of life, we only need to trust that the Way knows the way.

Jesus knows the way.

It’s simple, right?

Or is it?

Even the disciples struggled with this, as we can see from our scripture today. They say, “How can we know the way?”
 
Phillip isn’t actually asking how they can know the way. He knows the answer already.

What he is asking Jesus is how can they trust what he says – trust that Jesus knows the way. How can they surrender their own control and their own worry about what the future holds?

These are the same questions we find ourselves wondering as we try to navigate our own lives and our own spiritual journeys.

How can we know the way?
 
How can we trust the Way?

How can we surrender completely to our Guide - to the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

I often do a Yoga practice that’s made specifically for runners. Toward the beginning of the video, the instructor says, “find your breath… bring a sense of you, a softness to these active postures.” Then she asks, “how can we do that? I think by staying conscious with the breath… and with practice!”

So, how can we surrender completely and allow Jesus to be the Way?
 
With practice.

I know that many of you have been practicing this surrender – this total trust that Jesus knows the way – for a very long time.

And some of us are new to this idea of surrender.

Even those among us who are seasoned and practiced and could act as guides for the rest of us still need to continue practicing.

It is not something we ever fully “arrive” at.
 
Trusting that Jesus knows the way – surrendering to the Way – is not something to achieve. It is not the destination.
It is the journey.

Our path is always going to be uncertain. We can not know the future.

But we can trust that the Way knows the way so that we don’t ever have to know the way or the future.
We can focus instead on the present moment.
 
We can’t know what will happen to a loved one who is in the hospital, or to our retirement accounts if the economy starts to turn downward, or to the world as climate changes increase.

We can certainly do whatever is within our power in the moment to try to set ourselves up for future outcomes. We take steps to protect ourselves – emotionally, financially, physically.

But once that work is done, all we have left is to trust that the Way knows the way, so we don’t have to.
 
We don’t need to worry about the future beyond what is within our ability to control. Instead, we can focus on the here and now.

We can laugh with our loved ones, share memories and stories, and enjoy their presence.

We can monitor our finances, tighten the belt when it’s needed, and make the next best decision for the moment.

We can try to reduce our carbon footprint, we can vote, and we can stay up-to-date on the newest science around climate change.
 
And then, we can rest assured that the Way knows the way.

This is the Good News of our scripture passage today. Jesus gives us the answers, and we can rest assured in this knowledge.

May we allow Jesus to be our gentle, loving Guide.

May we surrender. May we trust. May we breathe.
​
And then let it be. Let Jesus be the Way. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
God of compassion, we come before you today in gratitude for the gift of your son, Jesus. Thank you for sending Jesus to teach us to trust. Help us to allow Jesus to lead the way so we don’t have to worry or fret about the future. Help us to settle into the here and now and to enjoy this beautiful life we have been given. In your holy and precious name, we pray. Amen.