Following our family service on ‘Signposts & Directions’, I have had firsthand experience this week of the topic when I’ve had to direct the bus driver on the 226 route! Thrust unexpectedly into the role on Monday morning when another driver was ill, he arrived at the first stop of the route looking utterly bewildered, unsure how to get the ticket machine working or where to go next and somewhat disorientated by the dark. It was a case of sitting at the front of the bus and patiently guiding him through the route: ‘carry straight on here,’ ‘take the next right’, ‘go straight on at the roundabout’ and so on.
It’s so much easier to find your way when you can see clearly: I met him again this morning in the daylight and he told me he has no trouble with the route in the daytime, but still feels unsure where he’s going when it’s dark. We so need God’s light to shine on our path to help us to see the way forward, for distances and buildings and shapes look completely different in the dark. As Tim Hughes sings in ‘The Way’, ‘You’re the light shining bright in the darkness.’ We need the light of the world to walk with us so that we are not walking in darkness. (John 8:12)
Jesus told us He is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6) One of my most eagerly awaited Christmas presents was a new book by Eugene Peterson called ‘The Jesus Way’, part of his series on ‘Spiritual Theology’. As he writes there, ‘the Jesus way wedded to the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life.’ (P4) As we follow Jesus this year, He will lead us and direct us. Not only does it matter which direction we’re heading, the way that we do things matters as well, for ‘the ways Jesus goes about loving and saving the world are personal’ (P1) and never purely pragmatic, like the world’s ways. I’m not sure the bus driver would have found his way had it not been for the personal guidance of his passengers who were wholly familiar with the route and who could, therefore, guide him through the maze of roads and estates. (For those of you who’ve never taken the 226, this has to be the longest route from Thurnscoe to Barnsley imaginable, travelling through Goldthorpe, Bolton-on-Dearne, Manvers, Wath, Brampton and Wombwell, to name just a few of the places en route!) In the same way, we need the personal guidance of Jesus if we are to navigate life’s pitfalls, potholes, highs and lows.
