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Wherever You Go, There You Are

“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD. – Jeremiah 29:5-9

The prophet Jeremiah wanted the Israelites to enthusiastically embrace exile in Babylon. Well, enthusiastically might be a stretch, but Jeremiah was certainly going against the tide of most of the other prophets in Israel by telling them to settle in for the long haul. Most other prophets… false prophets to be clear… were saying wonderfully encouraging things that the Israelites would be quickly restored to Jerusalem. They were being encouraged to not even unpack their bags because the stay in Babylon would be so short.

Along comes Jeremiah with a dose of truth. Your exile will last for a long time (turned out to be about 70 years!) and you should prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for this reality. If you look closely at the list of things Jeremiah encouraged the Israelites to do it can be boiled down to this, ‘live your life in the place you find yourself.’

Here’s our dose of truth. We are living in exile. We are strangers and foreigners here who have been promised that it will be difficult. In fact St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, ‘We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.’ (Romans 8:22-23) So we live in exile waiting eagerly for the redemption of our bodies. In the meantime, as my friend Wally once said to me, ‘wherever you go, there you are!’ Let’s heed Jeremiah’s words and live our lives in the places we find ourselves and avoid being trapped by false prophets into believing that our travails will be short lived. We are here for the long haul. Settle in and enjoy it.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, each new day keep me mindful that I am a stranger in a strange land and that Heaven is my home. In the days you have set for me on this earth may I find your joy in the midst of the struggle and know that you are with me always. Amen.