A New Devotion - Trust the Way

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. It's based on the passage below. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

John 7:37-52 [Contemporary English Version]

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted, “If you are thirsty, come to me and drink! Have faith in me, and you will have life-giving water flowing from deep inside you, just as the Scriptures say.” Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone that had faith in him. The Spirit had not yet been given to anyone, since Jesus had not yet been given his full glory. 

When the crowd heard Jesus say this, some of them said, “He must be the Prophet!” Others said, “He is the Messiah!” Others even said, “Can the Messiah come from Galilee? The Scriptures say that the Messiah will come from the family of King David. Doesn't this mean that he will be born in David's hometown of Bethlehem?” The people started taking sides against each other because of Jesus. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.

When the temple police returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, they were asked, “Why didn't you bring Jesus here?”

They answered, “No one has ever spoken like this man!”

The Pharisees said to them, “Have you also been fooled? Not one of the chief priests or the Pharisees has faith in him. And these people who don't know the Law are under God's curse anyway.”

Nicodemus was there at the time. He was a member of the council, and was the same one who had earlier come to see Jesus. He said, “Our Law doesn't let us condemn people before we hear what they have to say. We cannot judge them before we know what they have done.”

Then they said, “Nicodemus, you must be from Galilee! Read the Scriptures, and you will find that no prophet is to come from Galilee.”

Trust the Way

Decades ago, I dated a wonderful woman who was truly a walking gift of God, a person of incredible sensitivity and compassion and someone who cared for me more than I deserved. Eventually, though, we broke up, and it was 100% my fault. You see, she told me something from her past, but instead of treating it as a sign of trust, I allowed it to get in the way of our relationship. Now before I write anything else, let me be clear about a few things. First, I’ve had a wonderful life with a person whom I love very much. And without question, my daughter is my single greatest accomplishment. Second, there were many skeletons in my closet that she had the maturity and common sense to look past. And third, I have no idea how our relationship might have developed. Still, it never had the chance, because I let some information from the past intrude itself into the present. And I’ll tell you, as I look back, I wonder what might have been if I hadn’t allowed myself to be distracted by something that shouldn’t have mattered. Of course, I’ll never know.

And I think that’s exactly what’s happening in the passage I read from John. Although they were astonished by what Jesus said, the chief priests and Pharisees allowed his homeland to distract them from the truth they saw and heard. You see, for those fine, religious men, the fact that Jesus came from Galilee was more important than the powerful message he brought from God. They allowed themselves to be distracted by something that really shouldn’t have mattered, and as a result, they missed claiming the light that was shining in their dark world.

But that doesn’t have to be the case with us. You see, with both God and those around us, we may want to try as hard as we can to maintain our focus on what is most important, and I’m talking about the truth that’s being shared all around us and the very human nature of those who’ve been called to convey God’s word. In other words, for our own sakes, instead of letting a lot of nothing get in the way of our relationships, maybe it makes a lot more sense simply to trust the way.