As someone intimately familiar with anxiety, I always feel a bit defensive when it comes to Bible passages like John 14. They remind me of how scripture has been weaponized to shame those with mental health issues. Jesus’ peace also seems so impractical. After all, fear is a response that allows us to survive.

My qualms are soothed by turning to the language of first-century Israel-Palestine. While the word peace in English typically communicates some kind of absence—of violence, of noise, of confusion—its counterpart in Hebrew, shalom, connotes total and complete well-being bestowed by God. Similarly, the word for peace in New Testament Greek, eirene, goes beyond absence to communicate harmonious relationships with God and others.

The peace Jesus offers, therefore, is not blissful ignorance. It does not minimize our emotions. Rather, it creates a safe space, a home where we are never alone because the “Advocate, the Holy Spirit,” is with us. In Greek, the Holy Spirit literally is the “one who comes alongside.” Jesus’ peace is the comfort of sitting in silence with a friend. It is the security of knowing that when you are too sick to get out of bed, there is someone else in the house. It is the reassurance found in holding your mother’s hand while you are in labor: someone else has felt a similar pain and survived; you are not alone.

Jesus’ peace offers a secure identity where we know ourselves as the beloved children of God. Through the Holy Spirit, this peace blesses us with the perspective of knowing that we are never alone. When we hurt or fear, we can hold on to this peace without dismissing our emotions and know that God is still good.