"The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him." - Lamentations 3:25
This sounds like such a sweet little pie-in-the-sky Bible verse, doesn't it? My cynical self a year or two ago would have rolled its cynical eyes at it.
But two things come to mind about this verse: (1) It's actually true. (2) Written at the time of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, it follows one of the best descriptions of depression and despair anywhere. These are not just the words of some happy, unreflective little person with an uneventful, pie-in-the-sky kind of life. These words, written by the prophet Jeremiah, are the words of someone who has seen and known unimaginable horrors.
Here is some of what comes before:
"He has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with wormwood.
He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
so I say, 'My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the Lord.'
Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me."
"my soul is bereft of peace; / I have forgotten what happiness is." Those lines! Haven't you been there? I sure have. Bereft, feeling like happiness will never come again, like it's something lost forever. My life experience doesn't even come close that of the author's, but I do know what it is to forget what happiness is. I suspect most of us do.
And then! Right after those lines!
"But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul,
'therefore I will hope in him.'
And then those sweet words:
"The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him."
It's a wonderful promise. A promise of hope. A promise that joy can follow even the darkest despair, for those who seek God.
My journey of seeking lasted more than a night. It lasted several decades of on-and-off seeking, on-and-off hopefulness, meeting with brick walls, broken promises, dead ends, and disappointing people (and a few good ones). But Jesus tells us, and it's true in the end: "For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."
Jeremiah's words were written during, and for, dark times. May they strengthen you, and me, in the potentially dark days to come.
Today's photo has little to do with all those words, but it's what came up when I ran a search on "seek" on my phone. I think we took this photo on the Smokemont Nature Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, back when we were living in North Carolina.
to the soul who seeks him." - Lamentations 3:25
This sounds like such a sweet little pie-in-the-sky Bible verse, doesn't it? My cynical self a year or two ago would have rolled its cynical eyes at it.
But two things come to mind about this verse: (1) It's actually true. (2) Written at the time of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, it follows one of the best descriptions of depression and despair anywhere. These are not just the words of some happy, unreflective little person with an uneventful, pie-in-the-sky kind of life. These words, written by the prophet Jeremiah, are the words of someone who has seen and known unimaginable horrors.
Here is some of what comes before:
"He has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with wormwood.
He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
so I say, 'My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the Lord.'
Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me."
"my soul is bereft of peace; / I have forgotten what happiness is." Those lines! Haven't you been there? I sure have. Bereft, feeling like happiness will never come again, like it's something lost forever. My life experience doesn't even come close that of the author's, but I do know what it is to forget what happiness is. I suspect most of us do.
And then! Right after those lines!
"But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul,
'therefore I will hope in him.'
And then those sweet words:
"The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him."
It's a wonderful promise. A promise of hope. A promise that joy can follow even the darkest despair, for those who seek God.
My journey of seeking lasted more than a night. It lasted several decades of on-and-off seeking, on-and-off hopefulness, meeting with brick walls, broken promises, dead ends, and disappointing people (and a few good ones). But Jesus tells us, and it's true in the end: "For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."
Jeremiah's words were written during, and for, dark times. May they strengthen you, and me, in the potentially dark days to come.
Today's photo has little to do with all those words, but it's what came up when I ran a search on "seek" on my phone. I think we took this photo on the Smokemont Nature Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, back when we were living in North Carolina.
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