Where does peace come from? Not me. I know something about chilling, but I can only point the way to Jesus who - for me - is the source of everything I know about the real good stuff. In a series of podcasts and blogs, we're discussing what it means to have a source of peace.

I want to show you how this stuff works - how can Jesus be a real source of peace? Is it some comforting story about a really good guy who inspired us to be nice? Not exactly. Is it about putting up with anything in life because the afterlife is around the corner? That's not quite it either.

I believe God loves us enough to want us to have great lives now. I believe that following Jesus is the to get that, and I know that following Jesus is a real, costly challenge. So what's so great about that?

In this first podcast, I had a chat with Phil Kelly from the ChurchNext network in Bristol. Phil describes a time he went through a lot of stress in order to follow Jesus, and what happened with the finances that were starting to look like a real problem.

Phil's great. I've been with him this year on the same sort of course he described, and it's been an amazing experience. It has stretched my belief at times to trust that God really will sort out the details of money and livelihood, but then... if he wasn't real, there wouldn't be much point in following him. Although my wife and I have had less than half the money this year we had before, we've enjoyed richer lives and definitely found peace from being more God-centred than self-centered.

I couldn't say we've perfected that yet. There are definitely still times when the greed wants to take back control. There are always fresh challenges to us where we get to decide whether we are putting God in charge and getting peace from him, or wanting to have another go ourselves and loading back up on the stress. I'm talking about some of that in the "Living a Chilled Life" podcast, but that's a work project more than a personal one. Chilling is great, but here I'm a bit more free to tell you that the good things we've lived out this year are actually from God, the source of real chill and peace, not just from the idea of being chilled!

Turning life around

One of my recent "Living a Chilled Life" podcasts has a great story from a friend about a big life change that he made, and why he started to believe in God. The full version with that whole story is here.

More here soon. Meanwhile you can email me at bern@bernleckie.com