“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” – John 6:67-69
Humans, with our earthly eyesight and mortal understanding, are so small. But we think we’re so big.
Jesus had just told the synagogue in Capernaum, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” The crowd was upset and astonished, thinking He meant that they actually should eat Him.
Because of that, a lot of His followers left Him. Not the 12, but some of the crowds that would follow.
Of course He was speaking figuratively, but most people only think in the tiny little box of what they can see and hear. For some people, a deeper meaning is impossible to grasp because their minds aren’t practiced in deeper meanings.
I was lucky in that when I was a child, my Dad would read us books like The Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings, and he’d talk about what the allegory was, or what the symbolism could be. We were deep from a young age because our parents taught us to look for what we can’t see.
That’s faith, right? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1). It takes practice. It takes mindfulness. You have to take every thought captive, but when you do, you start to see that the truth is that there is nothing here on earth that is real except for the love we show for others in Jesus’ name.
When you feel like you don’t understand where God has taken you or what He’s trying to teach you, or maybe you’re mad at Him and the world because things haven’t gone your way lately, ask yourself what else there is? Really and truly. Where else, as Peter asked, can you go to find the truth?
Practice asking what lies beneath. The Twelve didn’t leave Him because they had learned that there’s always more than what appears to be. There’s always more there. This, right here, this world, this life… it’s just not real compared to the realness of eternity with Christ.
My Mom and I had a mutual love of a song by Rich Mullins called, “If I Stand,” and it’s a perfect example of this principal. Do me a favor and read it or look it up on YouTube — it might change your life like it did mine.
“There’s more that rises in the morning
Than the sun
And more that shines in the night
Than just the moon
It’s more than just this fire here
That keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger
Than this room
And there’s a loyalty that’s deeper
Than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
That I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver
Of all good things
So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That You will pull me through
And if I can’t let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home
There’s more that dances on the prairies
Than the wind
More that pulses in the ocean
Than the tide
There’s a love that is fiercer
Than the love between friends
More gentle than a mother’s
When her baby’s at her side
And there’s a loyalty that’s deeper
Than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
That I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver
Of all good things
So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That You will pull me through
And if I can’t let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home.”
And if I weep, let it be as a man who is longing for his home. 
