God’s entire message to the Israelites in Jeremiah 29:4–14 seems to be: Be here now. Be content and invested in the life you have, instead of wishing for a different life.
But much like me, the Israelites had a hard time receiving this message, and instead of digging in where they were, some of them even looked to false “prophets and diviners” (v. 8) seeking a different answer, perhaps looking for a magic formula to get what they wanted out of God.
For me, and maybe for you, the fantasies and lies I choose to believe are the ones that say busyness is next to godliness. And this idea, that we should strive to do more, be more, have more, and work more in order to have “the perfect life” has fed into my core belief that I am not enough—that where I am is not enough, and that my life is not good enough.
If we are to believe both our culture and our religious institutions, the only way to succeed in life is to run ourselves and our families so hard, so relentlessly, so ragged, that we become shredded, depleted shadows of who we are created to be: whole, loving, thriving people.
Like so many others around me, I had fallen for this lie of the get-happy-quicker gimmick-sellers, of the grass-is-greener soothsayers, and I had nearly driven myself and my family to the brink of insanity. I was no better than the Israelites in the book of Isaiah. I had refused to rest, refused to do my life at a sustainable pace, and most of all, refused to live the life God was offering me.
Jerusalem Jackson Greer is an author and lay minister; she lives with her family in Arkansas. Devotional text taken from At Home in This Life: Finding Peace at the Crossroads of Unraveled Dreams & Beautiful Surprises, copyright © 2017 by Jerusalem Jackson Greer. Used by permission of Paraclete Press; www.paracletepress.com. Learn more via this video or by downloading a free chapter.
