Which Way?

Yesterday I was driving through downtown Mount Vernon, Ohio.  The road I was to take at the turn-about was closed.  I found myself all turned around.  The person I was riding with asked, “Didn’t you go to college here?”  “Yes,” I said, “But that was a long time ago.”  (Besides when I was at MVNU, the road I needed to take was not closed)!  To make matters worse, I got even more turned around on the way home.  If not for my passenger, who suggested I was headed the wrong way on Rt. 3, I would probably still be trying to find my way home.  I told him that he now knows how Kimberly feels.  She is use to my lack of a sense of direction.  My kids actually moan and say, “Are you lost again, Daddy?” because the occurrence is so common. 

It is one thing to get turned around and even lost when you are driving some place.  That is bad enough!  But isn’t it worst to feel like that is your life?  To be honest, when I was younger I thought my direction for life was pretty clear.  I accepted God’s call to ministry at age 14. I knew where I was going. I went to MVNU.  Then to seminary.  And then…well…after that it has not been nearly as clear.  I mean there are moments of clarity.  But there are also moments when I feel like the road I knew to take has been closed and I am left to guess at which is the best way to go. 

Have you ever wanted to scream:  “God, just tell me which way to go!  I don’t have the strength to figure it out on my own!” 

Jeremiah must have sensed that among the people of Israel as they were entering the land of exile.  They were separated from friends, relocated from their homes and removed from the familiar.  They were wandering and lost in a foreign land.  The road they knew was not only closed but gone.  And right there in the pace where they felt most lost, God spoke a word that still speaks today:

“For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come to pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, “ declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jer. 29:11-14).

It is interesting that God says we are not ready to seek and find him until we first are ready to believe that he has good plans for our future.  “Then”, he says, after we believe that promise, then we are ready to come to him in prayer.  And we will find him.  Apparently, the key to finding the right road back home is not by figuring out which road to take, but by seeking him with all our heart.  And once he is found (and he promises he will be), then he will bring us back from exile. 

“Father, thank you for your promise.  You have plans for us that are good and not to harm us.  Forgive us for trying to figure out the right road to take.  It is not about finding the right road, but about finding you.  Maybe we will stay lost as long as we are trying to find your will and way, because we are making it about something less than you.  We are sorry.  But we are also ready to seek you with all our heart because we don’t want to live lost in the land of exile.  We want you to gather us and bring us back home.  We trust you for this.  We need you in this way.  And we thank you for listening to us. Amen.”