Making the Best of Difficult Circumstances

Read Jeremiah 29:1-14

The threatened invasion had now begun and some of the nation's leaders had been taken captive. We can imagine the misery and heartache, so vividly captured in the words of Psalm 137 as "by the rivers of Babylon" the people sat down and wept, hanging their harps on the willow trees and singing songs of Zion no more.

Then, suddenly, there arrived this extraordinary letter from that gloomy old prophet who was still, apparently, prowling the streets of deserted, war-ravaged Jerusalem. Instead of advocating a policy of non-cooperation, as they might have expected, he argued in favor of reconciliation and integration. Instead of prophesying a short, sharp exile, Jeremiah spoke of a period longer than two generations. What were they to make of it? Happily, the letter ended on a more optimistic note, with the promise that God had a timetable and a plan to which He was working.

That many took Jeremiah's advice, to their own advantage and that of Babylon, we can see from reading the book of Daniel. But what is the lesson for us? Simply, that there are situations in which God places us which may not be what we really want, but which we can learn to accept, and from which we can profit. We must not always be thinking of the next vacation, the next job, or how to get out of the situation in which we find ourselves. Paul says as much in I Corinthians 7:17-24. Perhaps it is, indeed true, that we should bloom where we are planted.

Prayer: Give me, Lord, the strength to change what needs to be changed; the patience to accept what cannot be changed; and the wisdom to know the difference. Through Christ my Lord. Amen.

Image: Rivers of Babylon