A Better Life

I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. John 14:27, NLT

MY SISTER HAD graduated from college and was living on her own in her first apartment. She had just started a new job and was commuting into the city each day. On one particularly normal afternoon, she came home from work to find her apartment door open and her home ransacked. Drawers had been rifled through and her belongings were scattered—which corresponded to her peace being rifled through and her thoughts scattered. She called the police and filed a report, but not too long after, it happened again. For months, she was left shaken, and as she was piecing together her peace of mind, another violation happened. Her car was stolen this time and found a few days later in another state, burned and abandoned. Seriously? This was her first year as an adult living on her own, and I know she thought it was garbage at that point.

If you have ever had anything stolen from you, you have felt the weight of what a thief can do—steal, kill, destroy. You have been robbed of sleep, peace, and joy. Your sense of security has been killed, your hope in humanity has been destroyed.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus said He came to earth to do the exact opposite. He came to bring life, sleep, peace, and joy. He came to recover our sense of security. He came to restore our hope for humanity.

But the way Jesus brings life and restoration is hardly the way we might think. Sometimes He orders our world as we would prefer it for a season, and other times not at all. But He gives us something greater. He gives us His peace.

I witnessed this peace in a friend who watched her husband battle cancer and die. This peace could come only from Jesus. He gives life in the middle of death.

I’ve felt this peace in overnight stays at the hospital with my son. This peace is only from the Vine, the Source of all life.

I’ve seen my sister recover her peace and security after numerous robberies. That peace can come only from God after all she has faced.

With so much stealing, killing, and destroying around us, let’s cling to the Vine, the One who gives life. Let’s cling to His gift of peace and put our faith in Him. Doing so in such a broken world looks amazing on us.

GRACE REFLECTION: Where have you seen life from Jesus in your daily world? Where have you known joy, peace, and hope? Thank God for that, because it’s from Him.