Daily lesson for March 27, 2016

Today's daily lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 4 through 8:

4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But 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.

During this Lenten season I've been reading my friend Jerry Campbell's book "Choosing to Live" which is about his journey through the five-states of grief following the sudden death of his wife Veta. At the end of the book Jerry talks about the fifth stage of grief, which is Acceptance. In a powerful image in the book Jerry tells how he closed his wedding band in its original box and the spring-loaded mechanism snapped the box shut. It was then be knew be had to accept Veta's death a reality.  But accepting this new reality was not enough, Jerry says.   Jerry reflects in the book that there ought to be another, sixth stage of grief -- what he calls Growth.

Today's lesson is a sixth stage lesson. The exiles who were taken into captivity in Babylon have lost everything. They have lost their Temple, their land, and their families. Some have not accepted their fate yet, speaking of God's imminent rescue. But the prophet Jeremiah writes them a letter to tell them this is their reality which must be accepted. Yet, he doesn't stop at acceptance.  He speaks of more than acceptance.  He speaks of building homes, and planting gardens, and having children, and seeking to make the community of exile a better place. In other words, he speaks of growth; he speaks of choosing to live.

Pardon my coarseness, but the reality we have to accept sometimes really sucks.  Some people's reality is worse than that. Like the exiles 2,500 years ago, there are hundreds of thousands today who have been displaced, used, abused, betrayed, and bereaved in what can be a cruel, cruel Babylonian world. It would be so understandable if they were just to give up and die of despair. Yet, they don't; they go on. They accept the things about their life which they simply cannot change and they decide to go ahead and choose to live life and to live it fully. In spite of all circumstances, they somehow cling to the LORD's promise, written to the exiles in Jeremiah's letter: "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you -- plans for hope and a future." They are a marvel to me and an inspiration.

"Bloom where you're planted," the saying goes; and it means to grow right where we are -- even if its in Babylon.