Spent some time in the Book of Jeremiah this morning, chapter 29, where we see one of the most quoted versus in the Bible – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Chapter 29 is about Exile…
Being where we don’t want to be with people we don’t want to be with. Ever felt like you were in exile? Do you feel like you are in exile today? Exile forces a decision in our lives doesn’t it – will I focus my attention on what is wrong with the world and feel sorry for myself? Or will I focus my energies on how I can live at my best in this place I find myself? It is always easier to complain about problems than to engage in careers of virtue…
Daily we face decisions on how we will respond to exile-like conditions. We can say: “I don’t like it; I want to be where I was ten years ago. How can you expect me to throw myself into what I don’t like – that would be sheer hypocrisy. What sense is there in taking risks and tiring myself out among people I don’t even like in a place that seems to have lost its mind.”
Or we can say: “I will do my best with what is here. Far more important than the climate of this place, the economics of this place, the government of this place, the neighbors in this place, is the God of this place. God is here with me. What I am experiencing right now is on ground that was created by Him and with people whom he loves. It is just as possible to live out the will of God here as any place else. Yes, perhaps I am full of fear and am uncomfortable with the rapid change of life around me. There are days I’m not sure I can make it. But I’ve had those feelings before, and God worked it out. Change is hard. Developing intimacy among strangers is always a risk. But if that is what it means to be alive and human, I will do it.”
All of us are given moments, days, months, years of exile.
What will we do with them? Wish we were someplace else? Complain? Escape into fantasies? Drug ourselves into oblivion? Or build and plan and marry and seek the shalom of the place we inhabit and the people we are with? Exile reveals what really matters and frees us to pursue what really matters, which is to see the Lord with all our hearts.
It’s Wednesday. Choose to make it the best it can be.
