For many years, one of my favorite songs was “Jesus Is the Answer.” I sang it with conviction, believing every word. And in many ways, I still hold that Jesus offers guidance, comfort, and clarity for many of life’s questions. But I no longer believe He alone is the Answer. Because the world’s healing, its justice, its compassion — these do not arrive from the outside. They arrive through us.
John’s Gospel records Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” However, this conflicts with Thomas’s account, which states more like: “The Kingdom of God is within and outside you. When you understand yourself, you will realize you are a child of a living Father. If you do not know yourself, you dwell in poverty, and you are that poverty.” This suggests that truly knowing ourselves—our love, courage, and compassion—leads us to recognize our identity as children of a living Father. Not because we are perfect, but because we are willing.
I have lived most of my life in the Third World. I have seen poverty in its most brutal, physical form. People with nothing, families scraping by on hope alone. But that is not the poverty Jesus spoke of.
Deeper poverty is spiritual: the absence of willingness, involvement, concern for others, and love for creation.
When Jesus spoke of the Kingdom, he did not describe a distant paradise. He described a state of being — a way of seeing, a way of living, a way of loving. And you cannot enter that Kingdom by waiting. It can only be entered by becoming.
Poverty is the inability to let go of past injustices. It is the refusal to forgive. Poverty is saying, “I would like to help you, but…”
If the world is broken, it is because we have withheld ourselves. Our World will not change because someone descends from above. Change will only come when we take a stand.
Why do we have war, injustice, and starvation? Why is there loneliness and misunderstanding? These questions echo across centuries, but the answer remains painfully simple.
The Answer is you and me.
The great spiritual traditions, when stripped of their dogma, point toward the same truth: awakening is an inside job. Compassion is not delivered; it is cultivated. Justice is not imposed; it is enacted. Peace is not bestowed; it is practiced.
The Answer is not a doctrine, not a savior, and not a distant promise. The Answer, when it comes, will depend solely on how we choose to live our lives this day.
Your comments, questions, or reflections are welcome on the Discussion Page
