This is what the Lord
says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do
for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For
I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and
not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will
listen. If you look for me
wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will
be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your
fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring
you home again to your own land.” Jeremiah
29:10-14
This was a message to the Israelites who had been forced
from their homes and exiled to Babylon. It was a strategy of the Babylonians to
weaken the nations they conquered by spreading them our across the the empire. It was intended to keep them from
revolting. These people who have lost
everything are the people to whom God says, “ For I know the plans I have for
you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you
a future and a hope.”
This point out that hope is something way more powerful than
simply positive thinking. The best thing
I have ever read about that is a piece written by Jim Collins about Admiral Jim
Stockdale. Stockdale had spent 7 ½ years
as a captured prisoner in Vietnam. Here
is the excerpt from the interview.
He [Collins] read the
autobiographical In Love and War, written by Stockdale and Stockdale's wife,
before the meeting and wondered how Stockdale had found the courage to survive.
"I never lost faith in the end
of the story," he said, when I asked him. "I never doubted not only
that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the
experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would
not trade."
I didn't say anything for many
minutes, and we continued the slow walk toward the faculty club, Stockdale
limping and arc-swinging his stiff leg that had never fully recovered from
repeated torture. Finally, after about a hundred meters of silence, I asked,
"Who didn't make it out?"
"Oh, that's easy," he
said. "The optimists."
"The optimists? I don't
understand," I said, now completely confused, given what he'd said a
hundred meters earlier.
"The optimists. Oh, they were
the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would
come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by
Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and
then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart."
Another long pause, and more
walking. Then he turned to me and said, "This is a very important lesson.
You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can
never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of
your current reality, whatever they might be."
That is a good description of
hope. And it is our opportunity to forge
this kind of hope right now. Hope is not wishful thinking or
optimism. It is holding on to known
Truth in the face of circumstances that would suggest otherwise. Our known Truth is Jesus (John 14:6).
We often confront circumstances
that suggest no reason for hope. But as
Admiral Stockdale would remind us, we will prevail in the end. We don’t know how, but we know the Ultimate
Prevailer, and that’s enough to inspire hope.
We can feed that hope and make it stronger.
Prayer: Lord lead us in to a deep and abiding hope,
one that is not shaken by temporary circumstances but holds on to the promise
that your ultimate plans for us are good.
Prayer Focus: Pray specifically for your family and
extended families today.
Song: Israel "IZ"
Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over the Rainbow 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_DKWlrA24k
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