A Walk to Remember

By Val Amiel Vestil
Third Year – Einstein, Liceo de Cagayan University High School, Cagayan de Oro City

Every time I think about having a tête-à-tête with Jesus, I remember the story called Footsteps in the Sand by Mary Stevenson – I always see myself walking along the shore with Christ, amidst a vast land full of golden-colored waves that crash on the shore, and the magnificent sunset about to rest for the day. But today, a rather special and unique topic is what Jesus and I talked about. I asked him one question – ‘How can I make peace come alive in my world, Jesus?’ He merely smiled and said, ‘What do you think?’

As we walked along the shore, wondering if the walk would ever end, something struck me then and there. I thought that peace is a mere reflection of who I am. It is just right there, inside of me, trapped in my world, waiting to get out. But the problem is, how can I make it come alive? I’m just a mere teenager who goes along with this world, waiting for something miraculous to happen. And that is where the levels of ‘P-E-A-C-E’ come in, where P stands for Personal Maturity, E stands for Emotions, A stands for Acts of kindness, C stands for Camaraderie, and E stands for Evangelism. And so we continued on the journey.

Peace, I believe, starts within us. This is what I call – inner peace; personal maturity. ‘How can you gain such peace, Val?’ Jesus asked me. To start off, I have to be mature both inside and out. What is the connection between maturity and peace? Well, you start gaining peace when you are aware of who and what you are. Self-awareness comes with maturity and thus leads you to inner peace. That leads me to talk more in-depth details about inner peace which is fortunately the next letter, ‘E’.

In the word P-E-A-C-E, E stands for Emotions. All peace actually starts from our own emotions. In fact it starts from every single newborn baby, every playful child, every daring teenager, every hardworking adult, every aging senior. Think about this: if we have control of our emotions when in tough times, we learn to look on things from the brighter perspective. On the other hand, if we have no control over our emotions, we tend to look at problems as a great ordeal, and then possibly go mad about it. The word ‘mad’ may seemingly be a miniscule and harmless word, but with all the combined ‘mad’ people in the world, this will cause a horrid battle; a battle which will contradict with peace itself.

When we think about peace, we always think of good deeds done by heroes. We too can be heroes in our own way by doing Acts of kindness, which is the meaning of the letter ‘A’ in P-E-A-C-E whether it is at home, in school, in the country, or all over the world, Acts of kindness should know no bounds. Acts of kindness can go to helping Kuya with his love life, helping your classmate learn the lesson in Mathematics, or simply thanking the teacher for the lesson after the class. If we develop such acts of kindness, surely peace will come into our lives.

Now that we have promoted Acts of kindness to every person we meet, we then instinctively learn to practice Camaraderie, which is C in the word P-E-A-C-E. Camaraderie simply means gaining the trust and friendship of every single leap of faith. Multiple leaps will not only bring forth peace in the world, but peace in ourselves as well.

Jesus stopped walking and I halted as well. I wondered why we stopped, for I didn’t see any signs of life on the beach except for the marine animals that live in it. Jesus said slowly, There you go; you have answered your own question. I have guided you to the right path; it is now your time to move onwards’. He then disappeared slowly as if the wind was eating him up. I then reflected – peace isn’t just a word that we encounter in our life; it’s a way of life no man could live without. That walk with Jesus was such a walk to remember.