Nowhere Else to Go

"From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with him no more. 

Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also want to go away?'

 But Simon Peter answered him 'Lord, to whom shall we go? 

You have the words of eternal life. 

Also we have come to believe and know that

 You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'"

(John 6:66-69)

How many things pull you every day? How many grab your attention, and stir up discontentment in you? How many times does the magnet of worldly thinking tug on the filings of fleshly desires within your heart? Unless you live under a rock, it happens very often. Because we live in a world that has it's head screwed on backwards. There is not a lot out there that feeds our God-born spirit, but plenty of things to distract us and come against the truth of what God has said. 

I was in a Shopper's Drug Mart recently, and heading for the blood pressure monitoring station, I passed through one of the "beauty product" aisles. I was amazed at the number of boxes of hair color that were displayed. How many shades of blonde, brunette and red can there be? Now don't get me wrong; I color my hair regularly. My daughter (a hairdresser) does it for me; the same old medium brown every time. I wish I could just "go gray" and be done with it, but I haven't got there yet. Still, have you ever wondered if the never ending ways to "improve" every single food and health and beauty product will ever cease? Just how many kinds of toothpaste and shampoo do we need? Each new version practically promises a life changing result, and we continue to buy them, despite the fact that, in the end, most of them don't perform much better than the previous version. We are so susceptible to advertising.

But that is only a tiny example of the countless ways we can be distracted and led to pour time, energy and money into endeavors that are, at the least, foolish and wasteful, and at worst, damaging to our mind, body and spirit. Even good things can go to far, if they overshadow other equally or even more vital aspects of our lives. For me, it is a daily struggle to keep a right perspective. 


Despite the commonly held belief that there are many paths that lead to God, there is only one. That path, that door, is Jesus Christ. Conversely, the many paths that people take are the ones that lead away from God. 

Some of Jesus' disciples walked away, took other paths. They found His words too difficult. but others  knew the real thing. They knew the pearl of great price, and they weren't about to wander away from Him. For them, knowing Jesus was the ultimate prize, the only thing worth living for. Indeed, where else could they have gone?


Is this your heart? Do you say, like the Psalmist, 

Whom have I in heaven but You?

And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.

 My flesh and my heart may fail,

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

^{Psalm 73:24-26}

^{God grant us the grace to keep Him first, in all things, above all things.}