Youtube: Understanding the Way
The book of Acts tells us that before the followers of Jesus were called Christians, they were known as followers of the Way. I like to think of the Way as a body of principles taught by Jesus. These rest on the bedrock of understanding God as the changeless, omnipresent reality centered in all people and in all things. Or as Paul stated it, “… one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6).
Most of us have encountered the idea that there are many paths to the peak of the mountain. The implication is that there are a variety of teachings and experiences that can lead to conscious union with God. However, the Way is singular, not plural. We would think of the Way, not as one of many paths that lead to the top of the mountain, but as the mountain peak itself. In other words, the peak is not a destination, but a point of departure, that place where we truly begin our firsthand relationship with God. There is only one place where this can occur, and that is within our own being.
The world’s religions all share a mystical component that recognizes the omnipresence of God centered in all people. This truth often becomes lost among the more surface teachings and practices offered to the public. At the level of orthodoxy, wars have been fought over religious differences. At the mystical level, all agree. The Way of which Jesus spoke is found in all religions and can be summarized in his statement that the kingdom of God is found, not by looking for it somewhere in this world, but by looking within one’s own being (Luke 17:21).
I would summarize the Way as the understanding that God is the changeless, omnipresent reality behind all things. Every individual is an expression of God. The relationship between God and the individual is inseparable oneness. This means that in our time of prayer, God is always with us, a present help for opening the way to our path forward.