Peace

Peace

[Jesus said,] “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

MiSook looked at the book on her roommate’s nightstand. Her roommate read it each morning, and once she had asked MiSook if she knew the Lord.

When MiSook replied, “I worship the Lord Buddha in my ancestors’ temple,” the roommate had gulped and changed the subject. Now MiSook wondered who her roommate’s Lord was. Even back home, she had heard of the secret Great Power. Was that her roommate’s Lord?

She sat for a long moment, thinking about her nightmares. Then, timidly, she slid off the chair to kneel and touched her forehead to the carpet.

“Secret Great Power, are you so great you can help me?” she asked. “If you are, I want to know you.”

MiSook held her breath, hoping for an audible answer. None came, but as she raised her head, she glanced again toward her roommate’s book. Perhaps the secret Great Power is found in those pages, she thought.

MiSook thumbed through the book’s thin pages until her eyes fell on John 14:27: “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.”

MiSook was startled by the words. Then, wondering who was speaking, she turned to the beginning of the chapter and read,

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going. . . . I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

MiSook tried to make sense of the phrases: “Trust in God” and “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The secret Great Power has a name! she thought.

MiSook continued reading, occasionally glancing at the door. She couldn’t wait until her roommate returned; she had many questions. —SANDRA

Lord, I wonder what MiSook’s roommate thought when she returned. Was she ready to answer all those questions? Would I have been? Help me to know you well enough to introduce you to others.

Christ is not one of the many ways to approach God, nor is he the best of several ways; he is the only way.

—A. W. TOZER (1897–1963), AMERICAN PASTOR, PREACHER, AND AUTHOR