What comforts you?
When you are engulfed in turmoil and trouble, what would bring you comfort? What enables you to face it?
Most of us want the trouble to go away. Facing financial problems? A million dollars in my bank account would do nicely. Facing a health crisis? A cure would be just the ticket. Caught in a family conflict? If the issues could just disappear!
What does God offer in such moments? If we’re honest, most of us want the divine dispenser of solutions to fix our circumstances.
On Sunday, we will read from John 14. It is a familiar passage, read at many funerals. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places,” Jesus says, and goes on to promise to take us there. (John 14:2, click here to read the full passage.)
Jesus is addressing the disciples’ fears as he begins to teach them that he will be killed and will no longer be with them. He knows this will be a troubling time, but what he offers is not a change in the circumstances to what will be more comfortable to them. What is offered His presence and knowing the Father.
The problem with just fixing the circumstances is that there will always be new circumstances. Today’s problem may go away, but there will be a new one tomorrow and we must live in the fear that new sickness will come, relationships will be challenged again, new financial hurdles will appear.
True peace in the turmoil comes not in getting today’s challenge fixed but in knowing who’s we are and that the creator of the universe is with us. So Jesus tells them that in looking to Him, they are seeing the Father, and neither will abandon them.
When we learn that lesson in our bones, we can face any new circumstances that may come tomorrow!
This column appeared in the May 7, 2023 edition of St. John’s eNews. Click here for the complete issue.
If you are reading this at a different time, you may click here for the current eNews.
