October 11, 2015 Week 2
The Scripture
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. John 14:27
The Spiritual Focus…give and receive peace, anyway.
The Devotion…
Peace, is something we all desire. A popular church video shows a young man frustrated and in a hurry. He almost hits a child riding his bike as he hurriedly backs out of his driveway and becomes frustrated with the child. In traffic people cut him off, and then a woman slips into a parking spot in front of him at the coffee shop, frustrating him further. He enters the coffee shop and has to wait….can you feel his frustration? The clerk comes from behind the counter and brings him his coffee and, a pair of glasses. Puzzled, the man puts on the glasses and all of a sudden he is able to see what is going on in the all the people’s lives, those seated around him in the coffee shop. He sees their stories of loneliness, fear, apathy and anxiety. Each person that he had encountered on his way to the coffee shop had a story, each person was simply looking for peace. The video ends with the man returning home and seeing the little boy on his bike, he puts on the glasses and sees that the child is being bullied in the neighborhood and that’s why he keeps riding back and forth in front of the man’s driveway, for safety that grants him peace.The man gives him a simple smile of friendship, waves and the child responds with a sign of peace, his fear dissipates.
We don’t need, nor probably want special glasses to see what our neighbor struggles with, we extend peace anyway. Maybe we are in that troubled place, we receive peace, anyway. Jesus tells us in the scripture today we have his peace and we do not need to fear, it’s peace that only he can give, it is other worldly and it is a peace we are meant to share.
