One day a man decided to go for a walk to clear his head. He was walking through the woods thinking about life, his job, his relationships, all of life’s general problems. He was down and he needed a break, he felt he had no direction. As he walked his mind started to wander. He stopped thinking about his problems and he began to look at all of the wonders around him.

He started to look at the trees, the plants and flowers, the animals, and even the insects. It struck him how everything in nature worked together as if it was designed that way. As if it was all done purposely. But that would mean…

Suddenly he was faced with a question he could no longer avoid; was there a God who created all of this? At that point he looked up and realized he was at a crossroads. The path to the right was called “Faith” and the path to the left was called “Reason.” Which path should he take?

He looked down the path of “Faith.” It was straight but it was narrow¹. It looked like it would be tough for him to make it through. He thought he saw a couple of people in the distance but he could not tell for sure, the path looked deserted. He might be on his own if he went this way, with nobody to help him if he veered off the path and got lost.

Then he looked down the path of “Reason” and it was wide², there was plenty of room to roam. If you didn’t like what you saw ahead you could move around it easily, you could go your own way, do your own thing. The path looked easy and there were many people on this path, he would not be alone.

He had to decide which path to take. Scratching his head and running his fingers through his hair he realized he needed to sit down to think about this for awhile.

He noticed there was a large stone in front of the crossroads and he wondered how he could have missed it before. It was almost as if it was laid in that place purposely, he had almost stumbled upon it³. He sat down on the stone and started to think.

He had thought about this before, years ago, but he put it aside. He had always considered himself to be a free thinker. He found it hard to believe in a higher power that could have created the universe. He believed that this universe was all that there was, that it came about through evolution, and he left it at that. However he now started to wonder if he had stopped thinking where he should have started thinking.

He began to think about long-forgotten books he had read in years past. He thought of Aristotle, the “father of reason,” and how even he came to the conclusion there was a prime mover⁴. He thought of Plato and his “Theory of Forms⁵” and how he thought this world was a copy of the real world which was in another dimension. These people didn’t stop thinking when they got to a point that was uncomfortable to them. They kept on thinking, although they never quite got to the truth.

He thought about how Thomas Aquinas took Aristotle’s thought to the next level, using Aristotle’s logic in two of five proofs⁶ of the existence of God. Aquinas had continued thinking where Aristotle’s argument had ended.

Now he wasn’t so sure that what he had always believed was the truth.

After quite a while he stood up and looked at the crossroads. He looked down the path to the left and realized that while there were many people on it they all seemed to be walking around aimlessly, they had no direction. He realized none of them seemed to be truly happy.

He looked down the path called “Faith” and he thought he saw a figure walking toward him but he wasn’t quite sure what it was. He was disfigured, marred beyond recognition, he almost did not look human.⁷

The figure pointed at him and said “follow me.”⁸ He was not sure what to do, he might be embarrassed to be seen in the company of this man. He might not want to admit that he knew him. He might be ashamed to be seen in public with him. Yet…there was something about his eyes. They seemed to be kind and loving eyes, and they seemed to be looking straight into his soul.

He looked back to the left and took a step in that direction but he turned back to the right, he cautiously reached out and grabbed the figure’s hand and began to walk with Him down the narrow path of “Faith.” The figure’s grip felt warm but stern, compassionate but strong, gentle but tough.

Just as he had assumed, this path was not easy. He stumbled and got lost several times along the way, but the figure was always there to pick him up and set him back on the path. He was never alone, the figure never abandoned him⁹, he was always walking beside him.¹⁰

Eventually he came to the end of the path and his journey was over. He stood before a gate but it was locked. He wondered if he had come all this way for nothing. The figure looked at him and, reading his thoughts, said “O you of little faith¹¹, have you been with me this long and still you do not know me?¹²“

The man glanced at the figure, wondering how he knew what he was thinking, and saw that the figure was no longer disfigured. He was clothed in a long robe with a golden sash, and he had long white hair, as white as snow, his eyes now burned like fire.¹³ He said “knock and the door will be open to you.¹⁴“

The man knocked on the door and it swung open. A great white light shone through the darkness and encompassed the man. Jesus, now in all his glory, wrapped his arm around the man’s shoulder and they walked through the door…

1. Matthew 7:14 (KJV) ↩︎
2. Matthew 7:13 (ESV) ↩︎
3. Matthew 21:44, Isaiah 8:14,15 ↩︎
4. Aristotle, Metaphysics ↩︎
5. Plato, The Republic ↩︎
6. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica ↩︎
7. Isaiah 52:14 )ESV) ↩︎
8. Luke 9:23 (ESV) ↩︎
9. Deuteronomy 31:6 (ESV) ↩︎
10. Matthew 28:20 (ESV) ↩︎
11. Matthew 8:26 (ESV) ↩︎
12. John 14:9 (ESV) ↩︎
13. Revelation 1:13,14 (ESV) ↩︎
14. Matthew 7:7 (ESV) ↩︎