In my last post, I said that I had shared my spiritual journey for the college students at The Journey. I had to use multiple scriptural references.. which meant narrowing it down a lot. There's so many verses that talk about God's support and His love for us, etc.
I talked about Jeremiah 29:11... and I talked about how we can't take that verse out of context. So I looked it all up and read about the Israelites and what they were experiencing in Jeremiah 29. Turns out, he (jeremiah) was writing a letter to them from God. Because God always used messengers... His people were afraid to look at Him, they were afraid they would die. (do we still feel that way sometimes? That we don't want to look Him in the face? you know, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, we have the great privilege of being able to do that)
Anyway, in Jeremiah 29, God's people had been exiled from Jerusalem (their land) to Babylon (NOT their land). Crazy king Neb (shortening), who in my head will always be the crazy king from Veggie Tales who built a big chocolate bunny statue that he wanted everyone to worship. Crazy king Neb had exiled these Israelites from their rightful home to his land in Babylon. Back then... power was seen in people. And probably sheep or something like that.
God has sent this letter to the exiled people and I can hear them draw in a breath as someone starts to read the letter. I'm sure they are all praying that it's a battle plan.. a plan to get them home that day in time for dinner and their favorite TV show (well... maybe not THAT..). But a plan for them to get out of Babylon and back to Jerusalem.. their rightful home.
Yet... that's not at all what this letter said. God told them to make themselves comfortable. He told them to make homes, plant gardens, get married, have kids and let them get married! Basically, they weren't coming home yet. This was going to be their home for a while... a long while... 70 years to be exact. And after that exact amount of time had passed, He was going to come get them, rescue them and bring them back to Jerusalem. He explicitly tells them that He knows exactly what He is doing. Even though this is not at all what they wanted. I'm sure, more than anything, they just wanted to go home. To go back to normal. To go back to the time before life was so crazy and out of whack. But God says otherwise... He tells them to settle in. Learn to deal with it... but even more than deal with it, He calls them to make this new place their home and to enjoy it.
It wasn't what they wanted.. at all. He tells them to pray for Babylon and pray for it's leaders and such. That if things are going well for Babylon, things will go well for them too. If I were those exiled I would pray for Babylon simply under selfishness.. that I would want things to go well for me!
After reading the whole chapter.. it puts verse 11 in different context. God is saying that often, our life is not what we expect it to be. That verse sounds so happy.. that God has good plans for us and for our future. So often, we assume those good, happy plans will be the ones that we made. 9 times out of 10 it's not. It's not the plans we made for ourselves... it's the ones that God had for us. Which so often look different than what we would plan.
Maybe it's living in a town you never thought you'd be in. Or it's working at a job where you are miserable. Or it's the unknown of not knowing where to go to school. Or what to do with your life. Or how to get what you want out of life.
This chapter spoke so loudly to me in my life now. I am under such a longing for what I thought my life would include.. medical school.. a dad.. married parents.. a life outside of Starkville perhaps? What I have to remember is that this is the life that the Lord has blessed me with. And you know what? I truly do love every minute of it. yes, it's hard.. parts are not so fun. Beyond that though... God has brought me to this place, and said "Be yourself here. Get used to it. Make roots and bloom where you are planted. And in my time, I will uproot you and bring you back to where you belong."
The amazing thing though about that promise is the timing... in 70 years, all these exiled people hearing this letter would be dead. They would never get to go back to Jerusalem. God was going to call them Home before they make it back to their homeland.
Our lives may never get back to that track where we saw them .. we may get called Home before then. This Babylon, though? It can be our home. Truly it can. The Lord has put us here and told us, not asked us, but told us to make roots.. let them grow deep and to get settled. And to remember in the midst of all the people who will say that He is not in this or doesn't exist in our Babylons.. He asks us to remember His God degree. To remember exactly who He is.
He is the one who parted the Red Sea.
The one who sent a flood and after that a rainbow.
He is the one who came in the still small voice.
He is the one who sent His son.
He is one who loved us until the death.
He is the one who says this: "I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for."
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