One of the more popular words in academia during the last decade and even today is the term “pathway.” It’s used to develop an advising plan for students going to college or university. Once the student has declared a major, then they can better focus on taking those classes that they need. Doing so as early as possible means the student can often graduate sooner and save on tuition and matriculation fees for courses they do not truly need. Thus, they move through the pipeline at a faster pace and more efficiently so.
The college or university catalog lists the required “core” courses for majors that are offered, such as Clinical Psychology, Cultural Anthropology, Secondary Education, Pre-Med, Architectural Engineering and so on. For each degree, there are also complimentary courses called electives that meet the requirements for graduation. Electives allow students to “personalize” their degree program according to their interest. One student on the path to a degree in Astronomy may have an elective focus on mathematics while another pursuing the same degree may wish to specialize in physics, celestial mechanics, or even biology. So, perhaps 60%-75% of the courses between the two students are identical while the remaining 25%-40% are different. These degree plans are based on what are called pathways. What I hope to do is apply this concept to the notion of finding God.
You can “google” different ways to find different gods or pathways to Nirvana, Valhalla or Xanadu, but Scripture tells us that there is only one true God. Not every Christian may agree with what I relate in this post, but I think my experience is worth sharing for whatever it is worth.
When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John, Chapter 3:1ff, He told Nicodemus of the need to be “born again.” Nicodemus mistakenly takes Jesus literally. But Jesus is referring to a spiritual birth in a person, like what happened to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Wesley, already a minister with no earthly idea why, describes what happened:
“In the evening, I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.“
For Paul, it was his experience on the road to Damascus. For Augustine, it was the day he sat in a garden and heard the voice of a child. For Martin Luther, it was when he truly understood that “the just shall live by faith.” For John Wesley, it was when he heard Luther’s preface to his commentary on the Book of Romans read. For each of these people, they had an “a-ha” moment, or a very discrete point in time usually accompanied by a subject experience.
And speaking of Wesley, when I was young in the faith, I worked at a United Methodist Church in South Florida. I was the Youth Director and the pastor was my supervisor. The pastor was a disciple of Harry Emerson Fosdick, a liberal theologian who was a contemporary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, though there is no evidence they ever met. The pastor and I were talking about the “born again” experience on one occasion and he said that personally, he believed there were three ways, not just one, that a person could come to the Faith through Jesus. In the first path, he or she could indeed have an experience like Wesley did. Or, (secondly) the person could just make up his mind to become a believer in the way Zacchaeus did in Luke, Chapter 19, or thirdly, he or she could be born into the faith as Paul’s young friend Timothy was. To a young rascal like me, that was unthinkable!
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
Augustine lived in a Roman colony in North Africa. He was a young man, living with his girlfriend probably for the same reasons guys live with their girlfriends today. The more things change, the more they remain the same. But his mother Monica did not approve and wanted him to ghost his girlfriend and marry a respectable woman in order to groom him for a career. Augustine was as stubborn as anyone, and miserable in his sins, not wanting to give up the older woman who he truly loved. One day, in the summer of 386 AD while sitting on a park bench, Augustine heard a voice:
“I heard from a neighboring house a voice that sounded like a boy or girl—I do not know which—singing and repeating over and over: ‘Take and read. Take and read.’
Instantly, with a changed countenance, I began to wonder very intently whether children would normally sing a song like this in any kind of game, nor could I remember if I ever had heard anything like it. Therefore, stopping the tears streaming from my eyes, I arose, interpreting the song to be nothing other than a command from God telling me to take a book and read the first chapter that my eyes should behold. For I had heard about how St. Anthony had heard the words of the Gospel being read aloud and received Christ’s admonition as though it were being addressed directly to him:
‘If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ Matthew 19:21
And immediately he was converted to you by hearing these words. Thus, I eagerly returned to the place where Alypius was sitting, for there I had laid the letters of St. Paul when I had gotten up to leave that place. I grasped the text, opened it, and silently read the first text that caught my glance: ‘Not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.’ Romans 13:13-14
No further would I read, nor did I need to do so, for instantly, upon reaching the end of this sentence, I was illuminated, as it were, by a light that was serenely infused into my heart, and all the darkness of doubt vanished away.
Then, putting my finger between the pages, or by some other mark, I shut the book and with a calm countenance told Alypius. And he too told me about what had taken place within him without my knowing it. He asked to see what I had read. I showed him, and he looked even further along than I had, so I did not know what followed: ‘As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him.’ Romans 14:1
He applied the words to himself and told me about it. By this admonition he was strengthened, and with a good resolution and purpose, most fitting to his character—in which he was very different from me, all for the better—he joined me without any turbulent delay.
We went in to tell my mother, and she rejoiced. We told her, step by step, how it took place, and she leapt for joy, exulted, and blessed you, who are ‘able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think’ (Ephesians 3:20). For she perceived that you had given to her for me more than she had begged of you through her pitiful and most sorrowful groans.”
Augustine became a spiritual giant as important as Luther and perhaps more so.
MARTIN LUTHER
The vertical photo I’ve included shows pilgrims in Rome climbing the Scala Sancta or Holy Stairs. These 28 marble steps were brought to Rome in 326 AD, just a few years before Augustine’s conversion. The steps were said to be the actual steps at Pilate’s residence in Jerusalem and if so, Jesus would have climbed them only hours before His death. Pilgrims in the fourth century and now would climb the steps and pray and say devotions in attempt to earn merit with God. In some sense, these steps were a pathway to holiness, a stairway to Heaven.
Over the centuries, the traffic on the steps started to wear down the original marble, so at some point the Vatican covered the steps with boards, leaving gaps between the planks through which some pilgrims would try to touch the original marble with their tongues (or so I’ve been told.)
Now, my wife tells me that I’m a touchy/feely sort of guy. Touch is an important sense to me because I learn and discover impressions that way. In my life, I’ve touched part of the bow of the Titanic, part of the surviving exterior facade of the World Trade Center, a tile mosaic that formed the floor of a Roman villa around the time of Christ, Union canons at Gettysburg, a bloodstain from a flag Lincoln was wrapped in after being shot, and so on. If when you are shopping for toilet paper at the supermarket, you notice a small hole poked in the plastic wrapper, it may mean that I was there first, shopping for premium tissue. So, I would love, love, love to touch these stairs myself, but that’s as far as it goes. For me to perform some ceremony for the purpose of my salvation would mean that Christ’s death on the Cross was not sufficient to save me, and this is the same conclusion that Martin Luther reached.
Martin Luther climbed these same steps on his knees in 1510 (kneeling on the steps is a requirement even today.) At each step Luther repeated the “Our Father” in order to earn merit or to release a soul from purgatory. By the time Luther reached the last step, he had had enough. His whole trip to Rome was a bust, but it also provided Luther with the epiphany that the just shall live by faith (and not by works–like climbing stairs.)
MY BEGINNINGS
The first personal challenge to my born-again notion as it is understood and practiced in the U.S. today, was when I was rebaptized by immersion while in the Air Force. Just before I was thrust under the water, the Baptist preacher asked me to describe the “moment” I was saved. I explained that it wasn’t a moment, but more like a two-week period in my life that I entered feeling lost and forelong and exited believing I was forgiven and saved. It started when I read in Matthew the account of Jesus before Pilate and how the soldiers treated Jesus before nailing him to the cross. I was struck that he did this for me.
I recall the confused and disappointed look in the preacher’s eyes as he immersed me. After a few days, I decided it would be best for me to follow the instructions in the “Four Spiritual Laws” tract, just in case I “missed a step.” So, I did. Then, I visited a chaplain who was a mentor to me and told him the good news that if I wasn’t a Christian before, then at least I was now. Instead of a warm smile, he displayed a stern frown and shook his head sadly. He said “Ron, you’ve just sinned by doubting your faith. Everyone can see a difference in you and that God is working in you. You can’t turn around and go back to square one every time you are uncertain of your faith.” The lessons I learned from that period in my walk was that salvation need not necessarily strike you in a momentary flash, and that there is no magical formula to faith. No precise works to chant.
ANNIE POTTER
The next challenge came four or five years later when I met Annie. Annie ran the outpatient clinics in our hospital and I ran the med/surg unit under the charge nurse (it was a small hospital with barely three dozen beds.) Annie was an on fire, full of faith and a Baptist to boot. I asked her one day about her “testimony” and she said she didn’t have one. So, I rephrased my question. “What were you like or involved in before you were saved?” She replied “I’ve always been saved. My parents taught me to love the Lord from the time I was a baby and God and Jesus are very real to me.” I tried some trick questions like “How old were you when you came forward at church” and she said she never did. She stubbornly persisted that she had never had a flash of lighting or an ecstatic emotional experience, or a notion that in some time of her life she was lost. And yet, it was clear that Annie was completely committed to God.
Around that time, I fell back on my Lutheran upbringing to conclude that we do not become Christians because of an emotional experience. Our salvation is based on faith and trust in the Word of God, regardless of how we feel at any given moment. Annie said she grew up in a Godly home, that she was raised in the faith. So, who am I to try to poke holes in her narrative?
If I could meet my Methodist minister today, I would apologize for dismissing so quickly what he said and admit that he may have been right. Yet, I grew up in the church. I was baptized as an infant, went to Sunday School, was confirmed, taught Sunday School even, all before Jesus was real to me and before God began working in my life (though maybe I’m wrong again in saying that.) What I mean is there is much more to faith and salvation than going to church. Mafia dons go to church. Vladimir Putin goes to church. American Presidents go to church. But that doesn’t necessarily seem to make a difference to them or count for much in many occasions. They lie. They do dishonorable or unconscionable things. They may have blood on their hands. And for all their trouble, they may not be able to recall a single verse in the Bible.
YOUR PERSONAL PATHWAY
Coming to faith is just the beginning of your walk. Just as physically walking is more difficult to some people, whether because they have arthritis or lost a limb in war, or they have trouble negotiating obstacles in the way, the fact is some people have more challenges than others in their spiritual walk. Their pathway may prove more daunting to them. It is one thing to follow a clearly-marked, well maintained course over level ground and it is another when there is steep elevation involved, or the roadway is washed out or there is other danger. Take for example obstacles in your path. Here is a photo of the path near Mt Nantaisan, an area known as the “Japanese Alps. Notice all the boulders strewn about in the pathway. As your faith journey encounters terrain such as this, it will take time to for you to proceed. This requires patience. Each of the boulders in this photo represents an impediment as you pass through a phase of your life. Think of the people in the U.S. who lost their home this past year from forest fires, or floods, tornados, hurricanes and other disasters. Some people lost their homes through foreclosure. These boulders may represent health emergencies in the lives of your family members, the death of a friend, losing your job, pregnancy or miscarriage, moving across country searching for new opportunities. There are common scales such as the Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory that allow you to quantify the stress in your life, which doubtlessly affects your spiritual walk and prayer life.
Your path in life may include terrain that can only be traversed by crossing over or traveling down rivers or other bodies of water. This requires an entirely different skill set than you’ve used before. Look at this idyllic photo of a tropical, slow-moving tributary. Everything looks peaceful and calm. But suppose you knew that there were all sorts of dangers just below the murky surface. Temptations, in this case, represented by piranha; red-bellied piranha, the ones with razor sharp teeth that can in a school denude the flesh and muscle off of a one-hundred-and-twenty-five-pound capybara in less than thirty seconds, leaving nothing but bare bones in their wake. These vicious denizens can represent drug or alcohol addiction, gambling addiction, eating disorders, infidelity, anger issues, or wicked thoughts from your subconscious that even Carl Jung could not imagine. It is important here not to be distracted like the sirens in Homer’s Odyssey distracted and enchanted the sailors of passing ships.
Sometimes, the path becomes virtually impossible to follow. Remember the fairytale Hansel and Gretel, and how Hansel left a breadcrumb trail for him and his sister to find their way through the forest? However, when the time came for them to follow the trail, parts of it were missing because birds had eaten the crumbs. When the pathway before you disappears, you must rely on faith rather than sight. In the fairytale, God sends a white dove to lead the children to their destination, much as He led the Children of Israel though the wilderness of the Sinai.
Your path will be somewhat different than mine, because God’s plan for you while on earth is different in ways than His plan for me. You and I have a common core, but we encounter different life experiences as electives. This is partly because God finds us in different circumstances and different in age, abilities and so on. But our mutual pathways take us on a magical, mythical quests filed with wonder and awe. It’s a journey well worth taking in a life well worth living.
