Six Ways to Wonderful

I'm not sure where I'll be going with this post.  The title is all I have at the moment.  I did have to Google the phrase; I'm not sure where I'd heard it before.  Well, the term "Six Ways to Sunday" surfaced, and other than the title of a mob movie in the 1990s, the phrase has carried the definition of thoroughness, complete in every way.  It also implies that there is more than one way to accomplish your goal.  Somehow I knew this.  I felt the words were vast, containing many paths to one destination.  But there was joy.  It wasn't a matter of relative joy, but joy that permeated all reality.

So, I'm gonna get theological!  Once again.  Here I am at the locust tree pulpit.  (I must be motivated to preach.)  So, I believe that there is only one way to God the Father and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.  John the Revelator says so in the fourteenth chapter of his Gospel.  I really like John.  However (and this "however" does not dilute but describe the verse), Jesus is in each of the "six ways to wonderful."  He is the joy that permeates all realities.  Relativism is not entirely wrong if you approach it from the context of Christ being all and in all.  There is a man in Eastern Europe that has never met Jesus.  I've never met him, but I'm sure he's there.  He prays to Allah and believes Islam is a way of peace.  He loves.  He prays.  He cares for his family with devotion and faithfulness.  He has never been shown the Gospel of Jesus, but he is living it.  His joy is the joy of Jesus.  He will meet him one day, and it will all come together.  He will make it to Wonderful, although his journey will look entirely different than mine.

I have a friend who is like a sister.  She is my beloved.  I tell her so.  We have the most amazing discussions on faith and mysticism.  We understand each other.  We have experienced the Divine touch.  And yet her journey is not labeled Christian.  She has no label.  She is on a journey, a most incredible journey that I have watched and appreciated and from which I've learned so much.  I believe the Holy Spirit is at work in both of our lives.  I do not feel the need to correct her or show her the way.  Why should I??!!  She demonstrates the virtues of Jesus!

So maybe I'm bordering on some ancient heresy of the Church.  I don't know.  C.S. Lewis describes a very similar reality in the last book in his series, The Chronicles of Narnia.  He was the first author that opened my eyes to the many ways to Wonderful.  And I have met the Way---the Jesus that is the Way in all ways.  He is the current, the pulse, the beginning and the end of every journey.  Unless, of course, you have asked Him to leave.