Lost In The Maze

When I was a kid I used to love to do mazes in school or in books that I had. The ones where you would start in the middle with your pencil and keep drawling a line until you find a way out. I didn't realize it then, but there was already a "problem solver" personality developing in me. I can remember thinking at times though, "there has got to be more than one way out of this thing", but there wasn't. There was a single door to exit the maze and my job was to find the right way to it. There may have been many different paths to get to that one door, but there was only one door. And I can also remember times when I would find a way that I thought for sure was going to lead to the way out, only to find that it ended up being a dead end. And then I would have to back track to see where I took a wrong turn at....and get back on track to finding that one way out again.
I have said all this because today God was showing me that our lives are all like those mazes that I played with as a kid. Each of us starts this journey and we are all going to head off in different directions, but God wants us to know that in the end there is only one way, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one door that will lead you out of this maze we live in...and to eternal life! As many people find out, there are many ways to finding Jesus, just like there are many ways to find that one way out of the maze. Some find the quickest way with very little twists and turns....and some stumble around it the maze for what seems like forever before they finally find a way to Him. Some of us insist upon running into one dead end after another...but what I think God really wants us to do is stop, take a step back and look at the big picture. Like the maze, when all you focus on is the next turn ahead of you, it is really hard to see the way out. But when you would pull back and look at entire maze it was much easier for your eyes to see the path that was there all along. In life, Jesus is that path that has been there all along. He is just waiting for you to see the way to Him.
Now here is where a life with Jesus is a little different than those maze puzzles. When you find Jesus...when you find the way....it is like He hands you a rope that is tied to Him...to the opening, and then sends you back into the maze to help others find the way. That is His ultimate goal. It's not just for us to find the correct path and then cruse our way out of the "maze", but instead to say "now that I know the way, I really need to go back in and show others who were lost like me". For some that comes very easily and we feel the calling to go out and lead people to Jesus right away. But for others that creates a fear in us. A fear that we will be rejected if we talk about Jesus. A fear that if we tell people we have "found the way" then they will begin to critique our lives and all of our mistakes. A fear that our lives are too ugly to represent Jesus to someone else....our past is just to messy and people wouldn't believe that Jesus could make us different. But I am here to tell you that people are stumbling around in the maze just waiting for someone to talk to them about the RIGHT way out. If you have that answer, then don't keep it to yourself. The bible makes it very clear that we are to plant the seeds....then let God do the watering. Don't fear the rejection....no matter what, you're still planting the seed...your still pointing them to the path then will lead them to Him.
If you know Jesus as your personal savior, then start today by just forwarding this blog, or even some other message about Jesus, to someone that doesn't know Jesus as their personal savior. Let today be the day that you start to show someone else the way out of the "maze" they have been stumbling around in for years. Don't let the enemy keep them lost one more day....and don't let him stop you from sharing the answers that you have found in Jesus.
God, thank You that You provided a way out of this world. Thank You for Your Son. Your love is so amazing, and sometimes have to stumble around for far to long before we realize exactly what it is that You did for us. You provided THE answer to rescue us from this world and the sin within it. Help us to see that Jesus is THE way...and help us to point others to Him. Let us see God that we walk around with the answers within us to help a lost and dying world. Give us the courage and confidence to show others the way to You....through pure love. In Jesus name, Amen