Reflection

Tonight on Eli Stone his spiritual guide (I call him that because I don't really remember the character's name) said something really profound. It was along the lines of "You had to know when you took back the mantle of prophet, that there were going to be some dark times."

I'm writing my exposition paper (that's overdue) for Old Testament 2 on Jeremiah 1:4-12. Verses 4-10 are the account of Jeremiah's calling by God. Most folks who grew up in church would recognize verse 5 which says:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

As I continued on in the passage though, I picked up on something I had completely missed before, in verse 8 after telling Jeremiah he's going to have to go wherever God says and say whatever the Lord tells him to say, God tells him:

Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.

No where from verse one on does Jeremiah express fear. He had concerns about his ability to speak, and acted with humility when God called Him (see also Solomon's claim of being "just a child" before his accession), but he never alluded to being afraid. Yet the Lord, in a ominous tone offers comfort that the Lord will rescue him.

By accepting the call of the prophet, Jeremiah was accepting the fact that there would be some "dark times" in his life and ministry, which we see throughout the book of Jeremiah.

I guess I can take note from Jeremiah, and Eli, (not that I am a prophet) and prepare myself that be accepting God's call on my life, there may be some dark times ahead, however I believe that as God promised Jeremiah, the Lord will be with me.

Messed Up

Do you ever have something happen to you that causes you to be completely distracted from all you need to be focused on?

Well... I've had that going on for the past few days now, weeks really. I feel like I have no direction, I'm getting my MDiv but I don't know what I'm called to, it was just clear to me that God wanted me to get my MDiv so I could be prepared for whatever ministry he led me to. Sometimes I wonder if Children's Ministry is all I'm supposed to do, or is there something more? Not that I don't love the children, I do, but there are other things that I thought God has given me as strengths that I don't get to use now.

I have so much work for school, and I can't get motivated to do it. I might be going through a blue time, who knows. I definitely had those in college, but things have been said and have happened that could be a good cause of being down, so I don't know whether I'm just reacting to what's going on in life or if I should go see someone about this. Who knows.

I want to go back to high school... ha- good luck with that though.