A Letter in Exile


"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." - Jeremiah 29:11


Have you ever felt alone? Have you ever felt lost. It's ironic that this week in Sunday school we looked at the idea of discontentment on a week when we're considering Jeremiah's letter from God to the exiles in Babylon.

Doubtless we haven't experienced anything quite like the exiles of the Jews. They had their home destroyed and were taken, mostly in bondage, to exile in a foreign land. It was likely they felt discontent, lost, and a sense of hopelessness. But it is in that place that God, through the prophet Jeremiah, speaks words of reassurance.

God has a plan for us. He affirms that in Jeremiah 29:11, and elsewhere in Scripture. He affirms that He loves us, and that should be a comfort. Even in times when we feel lost, anxious, or discontent.

I sometimes think one of the biggest problems of the modern church is that we prescribe Christianity as the tonic for all life's troubles. That doesn't match Scripture. There were plenty of people of deep and abiding faith in the Bible that suffered hard times. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus notes the sun rises on the good and the evil, and the rain comes to the just and unjust alike. Being a Christian isn't a magic tonic, but it can help us get through those times.

God is there for us, especially when we feel lost. God has a plan for us, especially when we can't see where we're going. God is protecting us, especially when we feel the most vulnerable.

This is the Year of the City. Thinking about that, it's good to stop and ask what God's bigger plan is for us in the time and place where we find ourselves. When we open ourselves up to that, we will be amazed at what God can do.

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