There was a man who had a good family. He was dedicated to them as a father. He worked hard to get his children through school, often working late nights. The children were provided for, they had a house. But there was sorrow in his life. He was worried all the time about them. He rarely spoke to them because he was so busy, but he loved them deeply. And his family loved him, too. Because of his hard work, they had everything they needed. But what they lacked was their Father. You see, he had spent so much time loving his children by working that he got distracted from the big picture: he had a family of people who needed him not his money. 

We find ourselves in the same boat, too. We can lose sight of what really matters. We get so distract by worries in our life. We get distracted by problems in our families, at our jobs, at school. We get distracted by problems at church with each other, grudges and hurt feelings, lackluster commitment. We see all these “issues” and we forget what we know - that Jesus has saved us.

There’s a hidden danger here in that we can make God into another lawgiver. It starts when we don’t understand the problems we face in life so we ask, “Doesn’t God love me?” We want everything to make sense to us, we want God to fit into our little brains. The temptation is to make God more reasonable. We want answers to everything and when we don’t get them, our faith is shaken. That’s a subtle form of idolatry because we want God to meet us on our terms: make these problems go away, they don’t make any sense. "It would be easier if God just gave me some rules to follow, then I would understand him." "If he would just tell me what I’ve done wrong, I can fix it." That’s what happens when reason takes over. We no longer worship the God of Scripture, but we worship the false god we have created. And we forget what we already know.

So Jesus sees you and me, his weak-kneed disciples, and he comforts us. He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You know the way to the Father.” Our lives get all tossed up with worry and anger and sin and Jesus says it doesn’t have to be that way, trust in him. Why, because we know the way to the Father. The way to the Father is through our Savior. He is the way, the truth, the life. Follow him.