Future of Hope

Happy Thursday everyone!

I came to the abrupt realization after supper tonight that it is Thursday night and I had completely forgotten about writing the blog for today. I am going to be building this weeks post from a post I actually wrote last week and did not publish. Ironically - rather, providentially, as I am starting to see all of our ironies tend to be, Father Jim actually spoke a fair bit on what I had written, at the Zeteo event the following night.

Hope this post finds everyone having a terrific week!

Blessings,
Olivia Fischer


Week One: Future of Hope

Right now I am reading the book of Jeremiah, and let me tell you, on the surface it is not a very uplifting read. It is the story of God's punishment of Judah for turning to idols and rejecting Him as the true God. The book of Jeremiah reiterates the just anger of God over and over, such as in Jeremiah 30:24, "I will chastise you as you deserve, I will not let you go unpunished." God threw the people of Judah out of Jerusalem, out of the promised land and into exile, to serve under the King of Babylon.

As far as the people in exile could tell, being in Babylon was to be in ruin. They had been delivered from the Egyptians into the promised land, only to be thrown under the tyranny of yet another foreign power. The truth is, they had deserved it - they had broken the covenant with the Lord, and He had followed through on his promise to punish them.

However, the exile to Babylon was also God's way of bringing the people back to Him, and so it was actually a chance for a very good thing. The people in captivity had an opportunity to turn to God again, to obey Him, and to trust that He would take care of them, even then. In fact, it is in exile, that God sends the message to them which we as Christians have all heard and love from Jeremiah 29: "For I know well the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future of hope. When you call on me, when you pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look to me, you will find me, when you seek me with all of your heart."

The beauty of this promise God gave to the Israelites in their exile, and to every one of us today, is that we not only have a future to look forward to, but that it was a future of hope. At that time, the people in exile were plagued by false prophets promising immediate release from captivity, but God was asking for a bigger kind of trust, a bigger kind of faith. He was promising the people a future - that He would continue to be present with them and to guide them, and that in trusting Him with their entire hearts, they would realize the fullness of hope.

There are a lot of parallels to the exile of Judah in the reality of living today. With everything happening in the world, at least for me, the future seems pretty bleak. As with the Jewish people in exile, God does not ask us to understand or know the outcome of our circumstances. He simply asks us to seek Him with our whole hearts, to serve Him and to trust that there is a future to hope for.

Something that Father Jim challenged us to consider was whether we truly believe that God loves us. There is a difference between knowing this with our heads and believing it with our hearts. If we truly believe with our hearts that God loves us, how could we possibly doubt this future He is promising us? As Father Jim stated, God surely has a plan for each of our lives, and if we are able to come to some understanding of this plan for our lives, it will certainly bring us to joy.

As Jeremiah experiences, this does not mean that we will not face trials, but that we are continually given a chance to trust that Christ is our champion, and that we will not be overtaken. We have a divine promise of protection - a protection that extends far beyond this world and our understanding.