I just came from a four-day vocation camp in Mantalongon, Dalaguete town, Cebu. Up there in the mountains, I brought 18 young men who are discerning whether to enter Don Bosco Seminary this June. This camp is intended to help them decide and establish camaraderie among them through activities like prayer, songs, hiking, team building, am amazing race contest and other team competitions. One improvised activity that really challenged them was a game we called Maze Panic.
The participants were divided into three teams for an obstacle race. Each team with six members each was to go through an intricate design of ropes and stones which they imagined as deadly lasers and landmines. If any member touches it or steps on them, he had to start all over again. Each member who goes through the obstacles is blind-folded. He goes through the challenges guided by a leader who commands him to make the necessary moves in order to go through the whole maze unscathed. The team who is able to pass through the whole obstacle wins.
In the interiorizing activity that followed, many participants shared that the game taught them to listen to their guide and obey. Since they ddidn’t know the way and they were blind to the obstacles in front to them, they had to depend on the voice and promptings of their leader who was outside the maze and far from them.
Moreover, they had to be attentive to the voice of the guide because there were many other interfering voices all around. In fact, members of the opposing teams would intentionally distract them by giving wrong directions.
This game also mirrors our life.
We go through life with many obstacles along the way. In his book “The Road Less Travelled,” M. Scott Peck would affirm that “life is difficult.”
He says further: “It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually.” Thus in our inexperience as we make this journey, we seem to be blind-folded and we don’t know where to go. It is as if we are in a maze and for us to get through it, we need a guide, a life coach. It is in this that Jesus assures us “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” He speaks to his listeners with such conviction that it divides them. He is either crazy or He is really who he claims to be.
I continue to be challenged by these words of Jesus for today I listen to so many voices instead of listening to Him. I have to confess that many times it is not His voice that leads my heart.
I listen to the radio. I get information from newspapers and television. Many times my values and decisions are shaped by what I see and hear from the trends and fashions of the world. And God’s voice is drowned by the stronger voices and noise all around me.
If Jesus is the Way, He is offering me to be my guide along this maze of the world. The example of the boy Samuel is worth imitating when he humbly submits himself to God with the words: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”
I continue to strive, despite my lack of attentiveness, to daily discern the voice of Jesus in my life so that He becomes my Way, my Truth and my Life.