“So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘You do not want to go away also, do you?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God'” (John 6:67-69).

I cannot count the times I have returned to these verses over the course of my nearly four-decade spiritual journey with Yeshua. Over the years, I have experienced seasons of intellectual doubts, emotional downs, and spiritual droughts. There have even been times I was so discouraged, disillusioned, or angry that I would have thrown in the towel and given up were in not for the fact that I have, apart from Yeshua, nowhere else to go! I don’t always understand him nor am I always able to explain what he’s doing in the world, but I know Yeshua has the “words of eternal life,” and I know he is “the Holy One of God.”

I have, apart from Yeshua, nowhere else to go!

Peter’s words to Yeshua remind remind me very much of Puddleglum’s words to the witch when she tried to convince him that Aslan and Narnia don’t exist in C. S. Lewis’s “The Silver Chair” (an allegorical story about Yeshua, discipleship, and spiritual warfare; Aslan the lion represents Yeshua, the witch represents Satan, and Narnia represents the kingdom of God):

“‘One word, Ma’am,’ he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. ‘One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things—trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.'”