Something Else is Also Happening

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

                                                                                                                          —JOHN 14:27 (NIV)

There’s a wonderful trick I do when I am very afraid, and it’s a game called “Something Else Is Also Happening.” It goes like this.

I’ll be having a truly terrible moment, like I’m getting my blood drawn in a dark basement of the hospital, and then I decide that’s not the only thing going on. So I tell the bloodwork nurse that it’s probably not a coincidence that he’s brought me somewhere discreet to feast on my rich, delicious, B+ blood. And there’s always like a horrible moment where he stares at me and then there’s a terrible silence. But then he begins to lightly stroke the inside of my elbow crease, as if just considering it for the first time. And then he says something like, “I always ask for the night shift.” And then I’m like, there it is! I’m not just someone who has lots of health problems. I am living an exciting plotline with a nurse who’s pretending to be a vampire.

“Something Else Is Also Happening” is a great addition to sadness or anger or fear or any number of emotions that rise up in the face of suffering. A sort of absurd perspective-pull into something else taking place alongside my pain or fear or anger. Like the time I got very interested in my intake nurse’s dating history. Not to erase the pain or fear but to give myself permission to care about something else for a minute, too.

So then, what are we to make of Jesus’ words when he says to his disciples, “Don’t be afraid.” Easy for him to say. God is God after all. But maybe that’s actually the point. Maybe Jesus knows that something-else-that-is-also-happening too. That’s the meaning-making Jesus offers: His presence. At Christmas as God-in-human-flesh, God with us. As the Easter-risen-Savior who says, “Don’t be afraid. It’s me!” And then as the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth to be with us even unto the end of the age. A story far bigger than our fear or anxiety or anger. A story we can find ourselves inside.

READ THIS BLESSING
FROM THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE
for the gift of doubt (p. 100)

Blessed are we remembering that you hold all things together.
You are the invisible scaffolding that supports us,
the canopy of love that covers us in the present,
the stable pillars, sunk deep into our past,
and the sparrow that flies confidently toward the future
bearing for us the peace we could never have attained for ourselves.

 REFLECT

1. When talking about peace, Jesus said, “I do not give to you as the world gives” (John 14:27). What do you think he meant? What is the peace of the world? What is the peace of Christ?

2. We sometimes try to console ourselves or others by trying to make sense of our troubles. Do explanations work for you? Always, sometimes, never? If not, what works better?

3. Imagine Jesus was sitting with you right now. What would you say to him? What troubling doubts or awkward questions might arise? What comforts or consolations?