Overview:

The Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.
You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” (Jn 14:1-2).

Find today’s readings here.

I was once asked to give a presentation to a university audience about some newspaper columns I’d written. I said yes, but when the day arrived, I regretted my answer. I am a reluctant and sort of terrible public speaker. A bundle of jangled nerves, I used the restroom in the student center just before going on. There on the door of the bathroom stall was a message for me. Someone had written, in round, girlish handwriting, “You are enough.” 

It was exactly what I needed to hear. I took the little sentence to be God’s own words to me, an answer to my prayer for God’s strength to see me through the next hour. It turned out that I was enough.

Today’s readings sustain us in a similar way, if we just listen and allow the holy words to permeate our souls:

“This day I have begotten you.”

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

“Where I am going you know the way.”

No matter what life may throw at us, God has our backs. Because God loves us, we have everything we need to be people of faith. Because God has faith in us, we are enough.

But we may forget this in times of stress or when we are awash in doubt or when we let our hearts be troubled or when we’ve lost our way or even when we are afraid of public speaking. Sometimes we think other people are perfect, and when we are not, we think we are less than everybody else. We worry so much about so many things, and we often judge ourselves to be deficient.

Jesus has an answer for this, too: “In my Father’s house,” he reassures us, “there are many dwelling places.” Jesus has a place prepared for each of us. We can trust that God has plenty of room for us all because we are loved with an undying love, no matter our faults and failings. We are enough. We just have to believe it.

And the way to believe it is to embrace Jesus’ Gospel words: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” With Jesus, we know the route to follow. We know it is the right path. We know we will arrive at our dwelling place with God. We write it on our hearts, today and every day: Jesus is the way. Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the life.

Valerie Schultz is a freelance writer, a columnist for The Bakersfield Californian and the author of Till the Moon Be No More: The Grit and Grace of Growing Older. She lives on the Oregon Coast.