In his book, Mocha with Max, author & Pastor Max Lucado shares a safari story with a frustrated traveler, following as his guide cut through dense undergrowth with a machete.  Unsure, the traveler asked "Where are we?  Do you know where you are taking me?  Where is the path?"  The guide simply replied, "I am the path."

If you've ever been in a place in your life where you're not sure where things are going to end up, you may be asking God the same questions as that frustrated traveler.  Sometimes God's lead doesn't make sense, especially when you're tired and scared and don't know where you're going to end up.  It's part of our human nature to look to ourselves for the answers and question the advice of our seasoned guide, yet God knows the path we're walking and knows the journey is not always easy.  But rather than leave us feeling lost in the thick of the journey, God leads the way, because He is the path.

On his way to the cross, Jesus reminded his disciples what was coming, yet he told them, "You know the way to the place where I am going..  Thomas said 'Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way.'  Jesus replied, I am the way and the truth and the life."  (John 14)

"I am the path", Jesus says when we are unsure of where we're going.  And no matter how thick the jungle of our lives may seem, he knows where he is taking us - home to the father, to the safety of a life where there is no doubt, no pain and no more feeling alone.  The jungle is not the end of the journey, and the journey is not all there is to life.

Luke the physician tells us that "Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem."  (Luke 9:51)  Despite the temptations and needs that arose, Jesus came as our Savior, with a mission to die on the cross to forgive our sins and rise again to show us the way.  By his suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus cuts through the thick underbrush that is our sin and seeks us out when we were hopelessly lost.  I imagine Jesus' followers must have felt lost after witnessing his death, yet Sunday came and he appeared to them.  In the midst of their turmoil, Jesus said, "Peace be with you."  He went to the darkest place, where the Father had forsaken him on the cross so that you and I would never be forsaken...forgotten...alone...or lost.

 He doesn't always take away our fears or remove us from difficult circumstances.  But he is there, cutting the way for everone who will simply trust him as their Lord and guide in life.  Jesus knows the way may be difficult and we may not see where things are going, but "Take heart," he says as he leads, "I am the path".