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Jeremiah 39:1 – Jeremiah 44:23

Do you have a favorite?

My mother will tell you that I have a lot of favorites.  Every song is my favorite song, every holiday is my favorite holiday, every scripture is my favorite scripture.  I am that kind of person.  I really, really love a lot of things.

But some things really are my most favorite.

For example, vanilla is my most favorite ice cream.  And English Lops are my most favorite breed of rabbit.  And yellow has always been my most favorite color.

And I have a favorite flower.  One I love over and above any other flower.

I have planted this flower in several places in my yard, simply because I love it so much.

But it only blooms once a year.

And the blooms only last for a short time.

My husband will tell you it is one of my most favorite times of the year.

Springtime finds me out watching the progress of the plants daily.  From the moment the first hint of green escapes from brown dirt until heavy buds hang on spindly stems, the anticipation begins filling my heart.  Towards the end, Greg and I watch the progress daily waiting for the delicate petals to burst from the tight round balls that contain them.

Then I carefully cut the stems so I can bring the blossoms into my home.  I have a special crystal cut-glass vase that was my grandmother’s.  It is reserved specifically for these, my most favorite, flowers.  I only use it this one time a year.

The flowers will travel room to room with me for as long as they are blooming over the next several weeks.  When I am cooking, they are in the kitchen windowsill.  When I am writing, they are there next to me on the desk.  And every evening I carry them into my bedroom and set them carefully on my nightstand next to my bed.  When I breathe deep the soft, sweet fragrance fills me up all the way into the depths of my heart.

If you were to ask me why I love these flowers so much I think this would be my reply…they keep back nothing.  Spring brings with it the promise of their coming.  Their soft, sweet petals bursting from seemingly unyielding constraints never ceases to delight me.  And their fragrance can fill an entire room with a penetrating softness that somehow reaches right into my heart.

Perhaps it is because these flowers are so hard to come by.

Maybe it’s the fact that they can’t be purchased from the corner grocery store.

Could it be the waiting that makes me love the flowers so much?

Because every year it is the same.

My heart waits for Springtime and the promise that the peonies will bloom again.

I wonder if the same can be said about the promises of the Lord.  The tender mercy moments that come after the waiting, from seemingly unyielding constraints.  The penetrating one on one moments with the Lord that somehow reach right down into the depths of our heart.

Jeremiah speaks of a moment like this.

After the people have pled to know what the Lord would have them do.  In the moment of confinement, before the blessings.

There, within the waiting, Jeremiah the Prophet replied, “I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God according to your words: and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.” (Jeremiah 41:4)

I will keep nothing back.

“And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel…If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you…and I will plant you…Be not afraid…for I am with you to save you…and I will shew mercies unto you.” (Jeremiah 41:11-12 emphasis added)

If ye will still abide.

“I will perform that good thing which I have promised.”  (Jeremiah 33:14)

I am reminded of the peonies that will abide with me in every room, wherever I go these next few weeks.

So it is with the Lord.

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

There will be moments of waiting.  There will be times when all that we hope for seems bound by unyielding constraints.  Sometimes it may feel as if the blessings are few and far between.

But ours is a Lord of tender mercies.

He will perform that good thing which He has promised.

He will keep nothing back.

For this moment, still abide.

 

 

 

 

Jeremiah 25:32 – Jeremiah 30:18

This morning I drove past a large field by my house.

It is a huge field that sits vacant all through the year.

No one plants on it.  No one waters it.

Most of the time it is covered in dry weeds and baked mud.

Except for today.

Today it was covered in beautiful yellow flowers.

Completely covered.

I drove by and thought to myself, Can beauty be found in wilderness places?

Which led me to wonder, Can contentment be found in captivity?

Can peace be found in the midst of great trial?

In the twenty-ninth chapter of Jeremiah we read of a group of people who have not found favor with the Lord.  Because of their disobedience, the Lord allowed this group of people to be carried away captive from Jerusalem into Babylon.

Sometimes our refining moments come as a result of our own choices.  Other times they come through the process of mortality, by no choice or consequence of our own.  Either way, the lesson we are about to learn from Jeremiah is applicable.

The Lord counsels the people, “Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.” (Jeremiah 29:6-7 emphasis added)

Obviously these people are about to spend a lot of time in that place of refinement –­enough time to build houses, plant gardens, marry and raise children and grandchildren.  This news must have been worrisome to the people: for immediately they knew this refinement process wasn’t going to just last a couple of years.  They would have to wait on the Lord, which meant they would have to trust His timing.

The Lord gave them some important counsel ––through that period of trial He wanted them to experience an increase, and not be diminished.  Is the same lesson applicable in our own lives?  Can we experience growth through trial?  Can we experience an increase?

Then the Lord said, “…seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.”  (Jeremiah 28:7)  The footnote for peace defines the Greek translation of the word as contentment. I find it interesting that the Lord counseled the people to seek the peace of the city, to find contentment in the place of refinement.  Knowing that this period of their lives would be challenging and that it would last a long time, the Lord encouraged them to pray to receive peace.

How hard would it have been to find contentment within the captivity?

It is difficult to be content with the place where you are when it’s not the place where you want to be.

The last counsel the Lord gave Jeremiah’s people included a blessing, “For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place…For I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith the Lord, thoughts of peace…to give you an expected end.  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.  And I will be found of you.”  (Jeremiah 29:10-14 emphasis added)

Seventy years is a long time.

The people were in a place that was far from home, held captive by an unfamiliar people.  But the Lord did not leave them without hope ––He gave them a wonderful promise.  Even though they would experience that trial for 70 years, the Lord promised they would not be forgotten.  He would keep them in His thoughts. He promised to send peace, to answer their prayers, and to always be found by them.  There was only one condition on their part ­­––they had to seek for Him with all their heart.

Not just a part of the heart…He wanted all of it.

One of my favorite lines in this verse is found in the footnote of a word in the first sentence.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,
thoughts of peace…
to give you an expected end.”

If you follow the footnote for end it leads to Jeremiah 31:17 which reads,

“…and there is hope in thine end.”

Have you ever been in a trial that seemed like it would never end?  Have you prayed to find peace within the trial?  Did that experience teach you about what it means to trust in the Lord’s timing?

Last fall several unexpected events led to my husband’s unemployment.  It was a scary time.  The first thing he did was ask for a Priesthood blessing.  The counsel from the blessing was clear, “The Lord has something in mind for you.  Be patient.  Wait.”

So we waited.  And while we waited Greg took care of the list of “Honey-do’s” I have been keeping for several years.  When he finished the list and there was no job on the horizon we began to worry.  Greg asked for another Priesthood blessing.  The counsel was the same, “The Lord has something in mind for you.  Be patient.  Wait.”

Waiting is hard.  By the end of January things began to look desperate.  We prayed fervently that the Lord would speed things up.  Again we turned to the Lord.  Again the counsel was the same.    ”The Lord has something in mind for you.  Be patient.  Wait.”

Finally, at the end of March we stumbled upon a business opportunity.  Things fell into place faster than we could have ever anticipated.  We bought a business from a woman whose husband had just passed away from cancer.  As my husband was talking to her about the events of her life over the last several months she began to talk about the last few weeks of January…the weeks right before her husband passed away.  As she spoke, my husband remembered how desperate those weeks had been for us, as we prayed fervently that the Lord would speed things up.  During those same weeks the woman’s family had been praying too…that the Lord would slow things down.  So they would have more time together as a family.   So the kids would have more time with their dad.

As my husband told me that story it was a defining moment in my life.  I learned what it meant to trust the Lord’s timing.

The Lord knew what was happening in both of our lives.  He knew our family was going to be OK.  He was orchestrating the events of that time period so things would be best for both families.

We just needed to trust Him and in doing so, we would be led to find peace within the trial.  Contentment within the captivity.  Grace within the wilderness place.

There is great comfort that comes from understanding that the Lord knows the thoughts that He thinks towards each of us, thoughts of peace, to give us an expected end.

But an even greater comfort comes from His promise that there will be hope in the end.

Because no matter what the end brings, He will be there.

He is that hope.

Jeremiah 21:2 – Jeremiah 25:32

Have you ever had someone say to you, “I’m doing this for your own good…”?

I think I remember my mom saying that once when I got my mouth washed out with soap.  I totally deserved it.  I said something I shouldn’t have, which I won’t write down here, because some moments are better kept vague.

It seems like those words, for your good, are the introduction to a consequence you are about to receive for a choice you made and now regret.

These chapters in Jeremiah talk about a moment like that.  The verses remind us that every choice has a consequence.  If you make a good choice, then the consequence is good.  But if the choice is bad, then so is the consequence.  You can’t escape a consequence.

And you can’t fight against it.

That is what the Lord tried to explain in chapter 21 of Jeremiah.

Once the people realized that they were about to receive a consequence they didn’t want, they thought that they would look to the Lord after all.  They decided to try to escape the consequence by glossing over their mistake.

But it doesn’t work like that.

The consequence that resulted from their choice was coming either way ––they could choose to fight against it, or to surrender to the consequence of the choice they had made, learn from the mistake, and repent.

The Lord told them “Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.  He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth (surrenders) to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live.”  (Jeremiah 218-9)

The Chaldeans were coming either way.  They could fight against the consequence and die by the sword, or they could surrender to the consequence, learn from it through humility, and live.

The Lord gave a promise to those who were willing to accept the consequence and learn from it.  I will “acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.  For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down, and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.  And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.”  (Jeremiah 24:5-7)

There are so many powerful lessons about repentance contained within those three verses.

First, the Lord teaches the same principle my mom did ––a consequence is often meant for our good, it is our choice to fight against it or to learn from it.

Second, if we are humble and willing to surrender to the lesson we are given, the experience can both build us and also help us to grow.

Third, true repentance can turn our hearts to the Lord.  Through the process we come to know Him.  That knowledge leads us to understand that He is our Savior in a way we might not otherwise have learned.  For repentance to be complete, we must return to the Lord with our whole heart.  Not just a part of it…the whole of it.

I can barely wait for the lesson we will be taught tomorrow.  Jeremiah gives great counsel that we can apply to the captivity moments of our lives.  It is a lesson on contentment.  A lesson on waiting on the Lord.  A lesson on hope.

A lesson that will require our whole heart.

 

Jeremiah 15:10 – Jeremiah 21:2

For updated information about the walk click here…

Several weeks ago I went on a river hike.

At the very beginning of the hike my nephew, Camden, said to me,     “Oh, M, I have to show you my favorite tree.  You’re just gonna love this tree.”

“What am I going to love about it?”  I asked him.

“You’re just gonna to love it.” He replied.

So we hiked.  Him running ahead, and then turning around to wait.

Me walking through the river, walking up the trails, climbing over rocks, watching for the tree.

I wasn’t sure how he would know we had reached the tree.  We had passed hundreds of trees already and I could see more in front of us.  They lined the entire riverbed… trees of all different kinds, shapes, and sizes.  What is it, I wondered, that sets his tree apart from the others?

And then we came around a bend, and without him even having to say a word, I knew we had reached the tree.

And he was right…I loved it.

I am not sure why I loved it so much, but I did.  Immediately.  Perhaps it was the shade it provided across the entire path.  It might have been the rocks that seemed strategically placed by Nature herself, to offer a place of rest and refuge from the heat.  It could have been the boughs that stretched across the path on one side, and over the river on the other.  Strong boughs, just right for climbing in. Boughs that had a large curve  every so often along the branch, almost as if the tree had prepared a sitting place for those who chose to venture there.

It was the largest tree along the river bank.  The trunk was old, and weathered.  The tallest branches reached high above the other trees that lined the path.

As I stood there, sheltered by its shade, I couldn’t help but wonder what stories it could tell of others who had stood there beneath it’s sheltering boughs.

This morning when I read chapter 17 of Jeremiah I was reminded of Camden’s tree.

Jeremiah spoke of a man whose heart had departed from the Lord.  A person who would rather trust in another man than in God.  He likened this man to a juniper tree growing in the desert…the parched places…the wilderness.  (Jeremiah 17:5-6)

Then he spoke of a man that trusted in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

“He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”  (Jeremiah 17:8)

I love the thought of the Lord offering refuge from heat, faith in time of drought, and fruit in every season.  My thoughts turn to the blessings of protection, guidance, sustenance…

and then, to hope.

Blessed is that man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

There are days when the only thing that has gotten me through is my trust in the Lord, and an unfailing hope in His ability to protect, guide, and provide sustenance for me…for my family.

Days when the only thing that has kept me standing in the intense storms that surround me are the roots that stretch deep to find the Living Water.

Roots that stem from trust, that lead to hope.

Hope is an unspeakable gift.  It is what sustains the soul in moments that would otherwise destroy us.  Hope is what carries us through the places we could not get through on our own.

Hope in the Lord.

Hope that started as a simple seed and then stretched roots deep to waters flowing, and boughs high to Heaven reaching.

That’s what happens when a tree is planted by the waters.

Someday perhaps I will grow old and weathered with roots spreading and branches reaching.

Maybe a young boy will say of me, “I have to show you one of my favorite people, you will love her…”

“What am I going to love about her?”  The person might ask.

He will reply, “You’re just going to love her.”

And when they come around the bend and see me standing there perhaps they will recognize me as the person the boy was speaking of and think to themselves, “Oh, I do love her.”

And they may not know why, exactly, but I hope they will see in me the kind of person whose hope the Lord is.

Jeremiah 9:25 – Jeremiah 15:10

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Every time I begin reading the Book of Mormon my imagination is stirred.

I can’t help but wonder about the conditions of Jerusalem during that time period.

I think of my own children and I wonder how bad the world around me would have to get before I would leave behind my home, my belongings, my neighbors, and my lifestyle to wander out into the wilderness and live in a tent.

I like to camp …but I also like to come home from camping.  When I picture Lehi packing up his entire family and leaving his home and possessions to live in a tent it makes me think that things in Jerusalem must have been pretty bad.

For the past couple of days I have found myself immersed in the words of Jeremiah.  Did you know that Jeremiah and Lehi would have been contemporaries?  Did you know that the Jerusalem Lehi left is the same Jerusalem Jeremiah is writing about?  As I read the words of Jeremiah it makes me love Lehi and Nephi even more.  I begin to understand the hardship of raising a righteous family in an increasingly wicked world.  The dangers become more clear.  The course defined by the Lord’s prophets becomes even more evident.

We must choose God.

Always.

And we must follow Him with exactness.

Besides the gross wickedness and sin, Jeremiah defines the time of Jerusalem in the moment Lehi left with descriptions such as these…  ”They are not valiant for the truth, they know not me (9:3), no man repenteth of his wickedness (8:6), they went backward, and not forward (7:24), this people have a rebellious heart (5:23), families that call not on thy name (10:25), they went after other gods to serve them (11:10)”

I loved the image portrayed in chapter 10 of the Gods Israel chose to worship instead of the Lord…

“for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: …they cannot go.  Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.”  (Jeremiah 10:3-5)

Again I find myself wondering why Israel would choose to worship a God like this ––one that cannot move, speak, or go.  A God that is unable to do good.

And I wonder, do we do that today?  Obviously we don’t have a God made out of wood and decked with silver and gold… or do we?  Because the place where we spend the most of our time, what we are devoted to, what we adore…isn’t that what we have come to worship?  Do items made of wood and decked with precious things require us to devote more time making money to pay for them?  Is my adoration fixed on items made of chrome and silver?  Where is it that I am focusing most of my time?  How about my children?

What is it that we worship most?

A sport?  A hobby?  A possession?

Oh, I hope not.  But I take the counsel given by Jeremiah in verse seventeen of chapter nine, “Consider ye…”

Am I willing to be more like Lehi and let my possessions become of lesser consequence and the spirituality of my family become of greatest importance?  Is there a way to live in the world, but not be of the world?  To follow the Liahona a little bit closer here in my own home?  Can I learn from Jeremiah what it will require of me to not walk the path Israel chose?

There are two phrases that haunt me so far in Jeremiah…

“Why do we sit still?” (Jeremiah 8:14)

I can’t help but wonder if I sit still… instead of assembling my family together or gathering for defense.  The Jerusalem Nephi grew up in was described by Jeremiah as being sensual and materialistic, and Lehi decided he couldn’t afford to sit still and let that environment destroy his children.  I can’t help but think of our world today.  Do we allow wickedness to surround us through conversations, through media, through daily life and do we just sit still?  Or do we assemble our family…do we have a plan of defense?

Do we follow the counsel of the prophets…with exactness?

Because here is the second phrase that haunts me…

“To whom shall I speak, and give warning?  …I am weary with holding in…” (Jeremiah 6:10-11)

I want to hear the warnings.  I want to choose righteousness.  I want to walk the path that will allow me to know the Lord.  To really know Him.  To understand Him.  I want to be the type of person that Jeremiah describes,

“But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgement, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”  (Jeremiah 9:24)

Instead of choosing a God that can’t move, speak, or go, I want to choose the living God.

The One who delights in lovingkindness…a God that is able to do good.

So I will learn from Lehi.  My possessions matter least.  My family matters most.

I choose the Lord.

To worship Him.

I will not sit still.