Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know WHERE you are going; so how can we know THE WAY to get there?”
John 14:5, Good News Translation.
In this Bible passage, Thomas was saying to Jesus, in effect, “If we don’t know WHERE, can we know HOW? If we don’t know where You are headed, how can we tell the way to There?” He seemed to have been saying that destination precedes preparation; that purpose often births process. Nobody meets someone nowhere. Someone has to be somewhere for anyone to meet them there.
Thomas spoke a profound truth of life. If you don’t know where you are going to, how can you know how to get there? If destination is unknown, how does anyone plot the trip? A person without a future has no plans to get there. The reverse is no less true, that a person without a plan tells of someone going nowhere. Nobody plots a trip to a destination they do not have; no compass leads to an inexistent point on the map.
Know WHERE you are headed in the near and far future, then HOW to get there. Know where, or you might get nowhere. In further words, to get Nowhere, simply do Nothing.
Sometimes the Somewhere may be a place on God’s map, and He undertakes to guide the trip. Then He might choose to hide the path to the Place, but often there is a place. God said to Abram, for instance, “Come, let’s take a long walk to Somewhere.” God didn’t name the place, and didn’t show him how he’d get there. The man might have refrained from what turned out to be the rocky path that led through many years to his blessed place (Genesis 12:1).
Also, God showed the young Joseph a future Place of enviable glory. Joseph loved it so much that “he proudlyannounced” it to anyone who cared to hear (Genesis 37:6, The Living Bible). God showed him his future palace, but not the paths through betrayals and prisons that would lead him there. Had Joseph known, he might have shut his proud and hasty lips and ran away – fleeing a present tortuous passage and invariably forfeiting a future throne.
Sometimes God might hide the passage to the place, but there is often a place, or ‘a place.’ Sometimes the place may be clear on our map, like Nineveh on Jonah’s difficult map – and the HOW to get there by a ship (Jonah 1:1-3). Sometime the place is on the Master’s map, like ‘somewhere’ on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:2), or ‘somewhere’ in Egypt for which Joseph had to prepare Mary and the Baby for a hasty escape in the night (Matthew 2:13-15). Sometimes it is somewhere entirely unknown to my map but His, like the Final Stop on Abraham’s long walk. Still, every destination had a walk, and a path.
Sometimes we might know where is There without all the details of There. Even then, it may be in our power to do the walk in that general direction. Even when the Father hides the path, because He knows our present frame, we can trust our feeble feet to His loving guidance There. I do not refuse to fly because I cannot tell which of the airline’s planes will take me There, or at what tarmac There we would land. I do not refuse the ride because I cannot say which bus or train will pass what routes to take me There. Knowing THERE is first, then planning HOW is next. If you can’t say WHERE, we can’t tell HOW. If there is no map, you probably are going Nowhere, and many would generally not follow someone who has arrived nowhere.
Father, in our lives and our land, show us Where, and guide our feet There. If You would also mercifully show us How, we shall be grateful. But if You would rather hide the path, please strengthen our walk. According to Your word, that “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteh in his way” (Psalm 37:23), we submit our steps this day to Your ordering. May There be certain as we follow You, our Good Shepherd, in Jesus name. Amen.
From The Preacher’s diary,
August 17, 2021.
