i feel like this post had better be good since its been a month and 6 days coming (since my dad doesnt count the last post as "real" because it isnt my writing....)
my semester is almost done
praise Jesus, i've almost made it...
with what looks like may very well be 2 a's and 1 b...or dare i say if i can pull it out on the calculus exam all a's?? either way is a stark contrast from my time at north greenville
still no job...still no prospects of a job....but i did work 36 hours in 3 days at chick fil a when i was home for thanksgiving...
and as much as it stunk having cfa be pretty much all i did last year all day every day i have to admit that after being jobless for 4 months it was really really nice and i was extremely thankful to not just have a job to go home to but i basically was given free reign as far as what i wanted on my schedule, when i wanted it, and what jobs i wanted to work when i was working....and the money wasnt too bad either...
as i look back on this semester and where i am versus where i thought i would be, it is no surprise that the 2 pictures look extremely different
some of thats good, some of its not so good...and some of it just...is
there are some changes happening, well actually...lots of changes happening...none of which i can really go into detail with because of the effect it has on other people involved...but they are happening none the less
they all seem to be really big changes too...nothing thats very small...and they are pretty much all coming at once which makes them all the more difficult to deal with
its once again led God and i into an argument about who gets to be in control here,
He's winning, dont worry
i think the thing that has been the hardest here was feeling like i was living with no purpose,
its understandable...i mean, i came out of camp where we see the gospel shared with about 1000 kids a week every thursday...and we hear stories of kids getting saved at camp and then bringing their families to church and seeing them get saved...and stories of kids finding Jesus and His Love on the football fields...or in the gym...or at the canteen...or at the puppet show...and i get to be a part of that for 10 weeks...but then i have to go back to "real life" where bible time is exchanged for study time and puppet shows are exchanged for tv shows and assembly time is exchanged for commute time and so the story goes...
and for anyone who has been in that, its just hard to go back to "your tiny little existence" feeling like youre making much of an impact on anything or anyone much less the Kingdom of God
and i have friends literally all over the world doing missions for terms ranging from a month or so to 5+ years and here i am in the middle of small town georgia with a few friends, even fewer dollars, and even fewer than that clues about what im supposed to do next and how exactly im going to do it
in "my christian generation" (the group of christian people my age and all of our conferences/retreats/churches/etc.) you hear alot of people mentioning having a life verse and my junior year of high school at the state fca retreat the speaker said to underline jeremiah 29:11 and make it our life verse...im still not exactly sure what some people mean by that term, and im also not sure how legit it is to obtain your persoanl reference/motto for life from some guy who spoke one time but i did and have since extended it to 11-13 if only because it makes me feel a little less cliche since just 29:11 is almost as popular as john 3:16....but more because it says that God does have plans for you, plans for good and not for evil plans to give you a hope and a future but what gets left out is the 13 part of it that says He will guide you on those plans when you go after Him with ALL of your heart...and that seemed pretty significant so i updated my l.v. (life verse for those of you who are a little slow at keeping up) i guess you could call it my life verse version 2.0 bigger, better, and less cliche
so as i get into these little arguments with God my tendency is to for a time only stick to passages in the Word that i know....and kind of put my exploring of said Word on hold...i dont know why, i guess its like my puny very childish way of trying to "show God" (yea i said it, dont act like you havent tried to do the same thing)
so today i was thinking about that little life verse of mine and decided to share some thoughts on the chapter as a whole...as is very relevant to my own life at the current time...because as great as the 11-13 passage is and as much comfort as it brings....to capture the real truth you have to look at all the verses around it
so i decided i didnt want to sound like an idiot and did some researching on commentaries on the passage...and let me tell you...BORING...so BORING...hopefully mine will keep your attention....hopefully, because it really does have some good points i think
in verse 4 something that struck me was that it says God sent them (the jews) into exile...He didnt just go with them into the hard time...He SENT them there...what the heck?! He had not just allowed everything to be taken from them, He had originated that...
so then we take a little hop skip and jump down to verse 10 and see that He gets jeremiah to tell them that they are going to be in exile for 70 YEARS...so i guess that puts away all the "pollyanna's" trying to be encouraging by saying its ok my little jewish friends, im sure this exile is just a season, it will pass soon...keep your heads up....and according to one of the commentaries the false prophets had been telling them that they would be out in just a few years....what a bummer...not only are these prophets you think are real, liars....and not only is it not going to be just a few years...its going to be SEVENTY YEARS....holy cow...i think id cry...
all the time
what hard news...thats a bad day...a really bad day...its big news...and its awful...and it isnt anything any of them wanted or expected to hear....yet God speaks it and says its the Truth
how could something like that be good? but God says right after that, in the very next verse....that He knows the plans He has for you...and they ARE Good...
and its just as true and relevant to us today as it was to the jews that jeremiah was writing to back then...all the pain, and trial, and hard stuff, and crap, and junk, and unfairness, and everything that makes us go oh come on, really?! it isnt seperate from Gods good plans for our lives...they are, on the contrary, an extremely vital part of it
i know for me, as a 22 year old college student, its easy to feel like that Gods plans for me will only begin at whatever tomorrow/next is...its like the plans are always down the road....if i just have this, or if i just go here, or if i just do this, or if i just get involved with that...its always something...you have to figure that thats probably how the jews felt right? i mean if they could just get out of this mess THEN Gods real plans would start...and im sure those would be good
but that whole wrench from verse 10 gets thrown in there...the 70 year thing...and what the heck are they supposed to think now? if God's plans are their purpose and Gods plans aka their purpose arent going to be starting for another 70 years than does that mean they would just be chillaxin for 70 years purposeless? surely not...surely God wouldnt do that....
nope
He wouldnt
but their answer would probably be that that means they will be getting out of this whole exile thing soon...
but Gods answer is that His plans for them...His purpose is right there in the desert WITH them...
look at verses 5 and 6, He doesnt say "hey jew homies this whole in-between exile thing is just some meaningless time" nope...instead he says go do work son....build houses and stuff...this has to be more awful news coming from the j-miah himself...
the jews want a ticket out (and who could blame them), they want a big pity party, to sulk and moan, to go anywhere but where they are....and then j man comes in and says "umm sorry guys, but God says you have to settle down and start living your life...right now...right here...right where you are...this moment, this very awful, hard, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad moment is part of His Good plan for you right now"
and the stuff he tells them to do...is so....NORMALLL....build houses, live in them, get married, make lots of babies....
how incredibly mundane
its easy to think/feel like if we are doing Gods work, we will be doing abnormal things...missions in africa, vacation bible schools in india, camps in belize....
but maybe we have it all wrong...
maybe what it really means is to do normal things in abnormal ways (hold the jokes, i know you have some)...just think about it
and finally (yea im almost done...promise)
in verse 7 it says to seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare
so maybe we arent just supposed to sneak into peoples lives, hand them a tract, invite them to church, get the salvation card, and then say a peace out see you in heaven kind of thing....maybe if this verse is right, we are supposed to actually invest in the culture around us...maybe we are supposed to really give ourselves to people around us and maybe if our welfare is found in the culture around us's welfare...then perhaps life around us, as well as our own individual lives would be better, stronger, greater, healthier if we stopped caring about how people and things and events and ideas had wounded/hurt/damaged us and instead started pursuing all of those people things events and ideas with the love and compassion and grace of Jesus Christ.
sorry for the research paper...clearly i can eliminate a career in biblical commentary writing...and also a job at readers digest...and i guess i can sufficiently say that i have, in one blog, made up for a months worth of words....
have a terrific tuesday...full of alliteration, awkard situations, and new found fashions you never thought youd see...
