Ryan's Ramblings

“Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters—a pathway no one knew was there!”

-Psalm 77:19, NLT

In the year 155, Polycarp, the elderly pastor of Smyrna, was dragged into a Roman arena. He had been discipled by the apostle John, and he had known people who had seen the risen Christ with their own eyes. The governor pressed him to deny Jesus and swear by Caesar. Polycarp’s reply was calm and unshakable: “Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”

His sentence was death by fire. They tied him to a stake and lit the wood. Witnesses said the flames arched around him like the sail of a great ship, refusing to consume him. When the fire would not finish the task, a blade was thrust into his side (sound familiar?).

From the outside, it looked like the end. A faithful life brought to a violent close. But Polycarp knew better. His faith was exactly what Hebrews 11:1 describes: being sure of what we hope for and confident in what we do not see. Death itself was not the end—it was a doorway into the presence of Christ.

This is how God works. In the Old Testament, it was through the sea. Israel stood trapped, water before them, Pharaoh’s chariots behind. Fear screamed that the way was closed. But then God’s breath split the waters and revealed dry ground—a pathway no one knew was there.

In the New Testament, it was through the cross. To the disciples, it looked like finality—Jesus crucified, hope buried, everything lost. Rome’s instrument of shame was meant to silence the movement once for all. But God turned that place of death into the very road to salvation. From the cross came forgiveness, resurrection, and life. A pathway no one imagined.

Henry Law once wrote, “It is our wisdom to trust when we have no skill to trace.” Isn’t that where faith lives? When God’s footprints aren’t visible. When your map runs out. When decline or disappointment whisper that the road is over. We simply must trust.

When there seems to be no way, Jesus is the way. God’s path may be hidden until the very moment you need it, but it is never absent. Sometimes it’s found in the next prayer, the next act of obedience, the next breath of trust.

The noise of fear is loud. It’s the clatter of Pharaoh’s chariots. The roar of the Roman crowd. The steady ticking clock of time reminding us of our own mortality. But greater still is the presence of the Lord, who rides across the skies, who makes roads through seas, brings victory through a cross, and life through death.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1, NIV).

In Jesus—we trust beyond trace.

He… is the Pathway.