Daily Lesson for August 18, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 41 verses 7 through 16:

7 At the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 Then he summoned Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest, 9 and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea before him: 10 If you will only remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I am sorry for the disaster that I have brought upon you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, as you have been; do not be afraid of him, says the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to rescue you from his hand. 12 I will grant you mercy, and he will have mercy on you and restore you to your native soil. 13 But if you continue to say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ thus disobeying the voice of the Lord your God 14 and saying, ‘No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war, or hear the sound of the trumpet, or be hungry for bread, and there we will stay,’ 15 then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are determined to enter Egypt and go to settle there, 16 then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there, in the land of Egypt; and the famine that you dread shall follow close after you into Egypt; and there you shall die.

On Sunday I shared the words to Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer:

"God grant me the Serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And the Wisdom to know the difference."

Most of us are familiar with those words, but few are as familiar with the words of the rest of the prayer:

"Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time.

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as he did, this sinful world as it is,

Not as I would like it.

Trusting that he will make all things right,

If I surrender to his will.

That I may be reasonably happy in this world

And supremely happy in the next."

The people living in Judah had seen so much conflict and turmoil.  They were war weary.  They wanted to escape. 

But some things we simply cannot escape, but must stay and face.  For that is the path to rebuilding and the pathway to peace.

Accepting hardship is the pathway to peace.  And learning to accept our world -- disappointing, scary, sinful, and hard as it is-- is the only way to live by the faith we call showing up.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson comes from Jeremiah 46-48.