I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.  – John 14:6

I have been stuck on Pat Barrett song “The Way” for weeks now.  It plays like an earworm in my mind . . . even at 2:18 in the morning.  Right after learning how to play and sing the song, I read around the verse for some context.  Turns out, Jesus said this to one of His disciples named Thomas.  After being told by Jesus that He’d be leaving them, Thomas kind of freaked out.  Jesus had just said some words that still comfort me today, “I go to prepare a place for you,” and “I’ll come back to get you when everything is ready.”  Thomas couldn’t fathom being away from Jesus. After all, he had given up everything to follow Him.  So he just blurted out, “We don’t know where you are going, Lord.  How can we get there?”  Then, Jesus said the words that so many Christians have memorized over the centuries . . .

I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. – John 14:6

I just had the weirdest dream.  The thing that made it weird is how much time passed in the dream . . . years.  I walked out this door, apparently from some gymnasium, and this woman, who was not my current wife, greeted me as if she were my wife; which it turns out in my dream, she was.  I wondered immediately what happened to Tonya . . . what in the world did I do to mess that up?  Years of stuff passed . . . years!  To make a crazy long dream short, it ended with my new wife saying to me, “promise me that you’ll never leave me.”  I looked at her and said, “I can’t.  I promised my last wife I wouldn’t leave her, but I did.  I even promised God I’d never leave her, and I still did.  Why would you believe me if I told you that?”  I just couldn’t believe that I had let go.

Then, I woke up.  I’m not so sure I had ever been so thankful that Tonya was just a few feet away from me . . . still with me!  I thought about hugging her, but let’s just say, I know better than to wake her up at 2 in the morning.  Oh well, she can find out like everyone else . . . by reading this WMD!

I like how the stories go together.  The answer Jesus gave to Thomas was, “No matter what, never ever let go of me!” The answer to longevity in marriage is, “No matter what, don’t ever let go of one another.”  I do realize that there are two people involved and both have to be on board, and it really helps if they both are plugged in to God.  Both have to do what they said they’d do on day one. It makes me so sad to hear the stories where one did right and held on while the other just let it all go.

Thank God, Jesus will never let us go.  If someone leaves the relationship, it will not be Him.  If you want to be with Him for all of eternity, grab a hold of Him and never let go.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.  Nobody has eternal life except through Him.  He promises to never let go of you.

I have often wondered why Jesus would put Himself out there for the kind of rejection He endures by people who one day say they love Him and will follow Him, but then so quickly jump in bed with the gods of this world.  I can’t read the book of Hosea without utter disbelief that God keeps on taking us back like that.  Not just take us back, but also pay such a high cost to get us back.  When Jesus says, “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you,” He means it.

So maybe you are like Thomas was a very short time after this conversation he had with Jesus. Maybe you feel like God is so far away and you can’t get to Him.  You and I have to do the same thing he did . . .

Just never let go.

Later

Adam