Hello my friends,

Today we will be reflecting together on John 14:1-14, where Jesus tells his deeply anxious disciples, "do not let your hearts be troubled." I want to reflect on that phrase with you, what it means in the original Greek, and how it is so relevant for us in our world today.

Resources to Consider:

​-Wellness 2.0: When It's All Too Much by Hidden Brain. I found this episode to be incredibly insightful and helpful. It deals with our emotional and mental posture towards seemingly unsolvable problems in our world that can easily cause us to spiral and lose both our hope and will to carry on. This episode really helped me to reorient my goal regarding the huge issues we are facing and gave me some needed perspective. I recommend listening all the way to the end where a writer talks about his time in a Christian monastery. I hope you find it as helpful as I did.

​-How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith By Mariann Edgar Budde If you are looking for a way to support Bishop Budde and add another great book to your reading list, you can check out her book linked above. I just received my copy and will begin reading it soon. Judging by the title alone, I am hoping it will be a timely resource. Let me know if you have or plan on reading it as well. Would love to hear your thoughts.

​-Challenging Narratives with a Grassroots Faith with Tim Whitaker and Ben Cremer. I had an honest and raw conversation with my good friend Tim Whitaker over at The New Evangelicals podcast, where we discussed both the challenges of our respective jobs in our time and issues like immigration. I thought this conversation was timely for this week and thought I'd share it again here.

​-Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies by N.T. Wright & Michael F. Bird. This is both a timely and sharp book for our current moment, challenging followers of Jesus to confront the way of the empire in all its forms. It is both insightful and equipping.

​-The Way of Jesus Isn't The Way of Thrones or Empires, but The Way of The Cross. I wrote this article a little more than 5 months ago now and thought it would be timely to share it here again if you haven't read it as I feel it relates to the content below.

​-American Gospel and Citizens by Jon Guerra. These two worship songs have been especially meaningful to me lately. Sometimes, artists like Guerra can put things to music that writers like me are striving to say. If you haven't heard these songs yet, I encourage you to listen and sit with their lyrics.

“Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled”

John 14:1–14

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

How do I not be troubled?

Not letting my heart be troubled feels impossible. It feels like my heart has been troubled for more than a decade now. Being troubled feels like just a baseline in times like those we are currently living through.

Almost daily, I feel grief over the state of our world and our country. I feel troubled when I see the earth being ravaged for profit with so little concern for the generations who will inherit what we leave behind. I think about my children and wonder what kind of future awaits them. I feel troubled by the corruption and abuse of power that continue to cause suffering for so many people. I feel troubled watching leaders invoke the name of Jesus while pursuing policies, practices, and rhetoric that seem so far removed from his way of compassion, humility, truth, and love.

And perhaps what exacerbates this all is how fractured everything feels.

I cannot think of a single sphere of life right now untouched by division. Families are divided. Friendships are strained. Churches are splintered. Communities are exhausted. Even our public life increasingly feels built upon suspicion, outrage, fear, and isolation.

Authoritarian movements throughout history have always understood something deeply important: isolated people are easier to control. If people can be divided from one another, if trust can erode, if fear can become normalized, then people begin to feel powerless and alone. Hearts become troubled not only because of what is happening around them, but because they no longer know who they can trust beside them.

The World Jesus Speaks To

It is into this same kind of moment that Jesus speaks in John 14.

This passage takes place on the night before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion. The disciples are already anxious. They can feel the tension rising around them. Rome’s violence is always lingering in the background. Religious leaders are conspiring. Jesus has just spoken openly about betrayal, denial, suffering, and departure.

Everything is beginning to unravel, yet Jesus says to them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

In English, we often hear this as an individual command about private emotions, almost like Jesus is saying, “Try not to worry.”

But the Greek tells us something richer and more communal. Jesus says: “Do not let your heart be troubled.” The pronoun “your” is plural, while “heart” is singular. In other words, Jesus is speaking to them collectively. “You all share one heart together. Do not let it become troubled.” That changes everything.

Jesus is not merely addressing isolated individuals trying to manage anxiety on their own. He is speaking to a community. A frightened, confused, uncertain community. He knows what is coming. He knows they will soon scatter in fear. Peter will deny him. Others will hide behind locked doors. Their shared heart will fracture under the weight of fear and grief. Yet Jesus knows something we are only beginning to rediscover in our own time: troubled hearts multiply when community disintegrates. Fear grows in isolation. Despair deepens when people are disconnected from one another. But courage, peace, resilience, and hope are often sustained together.

Abiding Together

This is why Jesus spends so much of John’s Gospel talking about abiding together. The Greek word menō means to remain, dwell, stay connected, abide. It is relational language. Jesus is not building isolated spiritual consumers. He is forming a people who remain deeply connected to God and to one another.

That is also why Jesus says, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” The point here is not "mansions up in the sky." As is clear in this passage, Jesus is going to prepare a place to bring back for us, not to take us to somewhere in the clouds.

The word Jesus uses (monē) is connected to this same idea of abiding and remaining together. Jesus is assuring them that they belong with him and with one another. They are not abandoned. They are not orphaned. Even in the coming chaos, they are still held together in God’s love.

Perhaps this is exactly what we most need to hear right now. Because our troubled hearts are not simply the result of politics or headlines or uncertainty about the future. They are also the result of disconnection.

We are lonely. We are exhausted. We are suspicious of one another. We are drowning in information while starving for presence. This is why it is so important to see that what Jesus offers is not a individualistic command to "not worry." He offers peace through relationship. Community. Presence.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

In John’s Gospel, “the way” is not merely a set of beliefs. It is a lived path. A way of being human together. A way rooted in self-giving love, mutual care, truth-telling, mercy, hospitality, forgiveness, and courage. And that kind of community becomes profoundly important in fearful times.

The powers of this world thrive by keeping people divided, reactive, isolated, and afraid. But the church at its best becomes a different kind of witness entirely: people who gather with each other to support each other. People who share meals. People who care for one another. People who keep building trust.

Small acts of community become sacred acts of resistance in fragmented times. A shared meal matters. A consistent gathering matters. A book club matters. Checking on your neighbor matters. Inviting someone over matters. Planting a garden together matters. Praying together matters. Listening deeply matters. In a world trying to convince us that we are alone, community reminds us we belong to one another.

This does not erase grief or fear overnight. Even Jesus himself was described as “troubled” earlier in John’s Gospel. Jesus is not condemning human emotion here. He is inviting his disciples not to surrender their shared heart to fear and fragmentation and that invitation still stands today.

We may not control the chaos of the world around us. We may not be able to immediately stop the corruption, cruelty, greed, or destruction unfolding in our society. But we can choose what kind of people we will become together in the midst of it.

We can become people who abide. People who remain. People who refuse to let fear have the final word. People who continue building communities shaped by the way, truth, and life of Jesus. And perhaps this is one of the most important things followers of Jesus can do right now: become builders of trustworthy, compassionate, courageous community in a fractured world.

Because troubled hearts heal best together.

Reflection Questions & Practices

• Who in your life may be carrying a troubled heart right now? How can you intentionally reach out to them this week?
• What would it look like to create more consistent rhythms of community in your life?
• Could you start a monthly shared meal, neighborhood gathering, reading group, prayer circle, or hiking group?
• Is there someone you have become disconnected from who may need reconciliation or reconnection?
• What practices help you remain grounded in the love and presence of Christ when fear feels overwhelming?
• How can your home, church, or friendships become places where weary people experience peace rather than fear?

Prayer

Jesus,
our hearts are troubled.

We look at our world and feel overwhelmed by division, corruption, violence, greed, and fear. We grieve the harm being done to people, to communities, and to creation itself. We worry about the future. We grow weary from carrying so much uncertainty.

And yet you speak gently to us still:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

Teach us what it means to trust you together.

When fear isolates us, draw us back into community.
When cynicism hardens us, soften us with compassion.
When exhaustion overwhelms us, remind us we are not alone.
When we are tempted to withdraw completely, give us courage to remain present to one another.

Help us become people who embody your way in a fractured world.
Make our homes places of welcome.
Make our tables places of belonging.
Make our churches places of healing.
Make our lives reflections of your peace.

And when our hearts grow troubled again, remind us that you still abide with us, still walk among us, and still call us to abide with one another in love.

Amen.

Now I'd like to hear from you! Did you find this helpful? What thoughts came to your mind as you read? Feel free to respond to this email and share your thoughts with me. I look forward to reading them. A 30 Day Day Devotional: I wrote a daily devotional in hopes to provide a companion for people seeking to follow Jesus through the season of we are currently navigating together. You can find out more below: $20.00 Following Jesus In A World Obsessed With Empires: 30 Days of reclaiming the hope, compassion, and justice of Jesus. Today, our world can often feel overwhelmed by darkness, division, and despair. I created this 30-day devotional to... Read more Get it now! ​ Ways to support: If you'd like to support this project, you can do so through one-time-gift of any amount you feel is right. You can also subscribe through a $5/mo, $15/mo, or $25/mo. Several others have also asked for a recurring gift option that is different from the ones offered here, like this one. If you'd like me to set up a different option for you, please just send me an email with the word "support" in the subject line. As always, I really want to thank all of you for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every single week. I'm thankful for the ways we are building this together and hope it creates a lasting, positive change in our world along the way! I sincerely appreciate you all, Ben Remember, you can now view this and all previous newsletters as well as invite friends to join through this link: https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/profile.

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