Jeremiah

I am reading a book titled Running with the Horses, author Eugene Peterson. The book is not new, just new to me.
It is full of reflections on the life of Jeremiah, the prophet.
Jeremiah complains to God about the wickedness he sees.  God answers him with, "If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses." Jeremiah 12:5
Was Jeremiah going to give up when the going got tough, or was he going to pursue excellence?
Jeremiah paid attention and for over 60 years he did the will of God.  He lived life with passion, fully devoted to the things of God, without any attempts at self promotion or improvement.  He was Gods man.

Eugene says as he was growing up he found the pressure to abandon the conviction that life is an adventure for the belief that life is a contest.  Thankfully, he was unwilling to do that.  He wrote,"Some people as they grow up they become less.  As children they have glorious ideas of who they are and what life has for them.  Thirty years later we find they have settled for something grubby and inane. What accounts for the exchange of childhood aspiration to the adult anemia?
Other people as they grow up become more.  Life is not an inevitable decline into dullness; for some it is an ascent into excellence.  It was for Jeremiah."

Those words are meaningful to me and a great reminder of Gods purpose and plan for me.  He says in Jeremiah 1:5 "Before i formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born i consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
Is there any doubt God has plans for all of us?  Will i follow him all my days like Jeremiah or will I trade it in for a stumbling walk through the dark woods of life? Oh, i pray not!

Our music minister said, "How we live our days is how we live our lives." Hmm, interesting because many days i waste away grumbling and complaining.  How many days have i wasted doing that over the years?  The good news is I don't have to do it from this day forward.  I only have today, right now to live as I am called to live.

So, I want to run with the horses from this day forward. I think I decided it many years ago after a heartbreaking loss in my life.  The decision was before me.....how will you live your life from this day forward.  It was clear and I have thought about it almost everyday since.
It was a mountaintop experience for me that came from being in the depth of darkness.  But in that darkness i could still sense the calling of the Holy Spirit on me.  I knew HE still walked with me, actually HE was carrying me and so I knew Joy. Joy in the midst of heartbreak but a joy that cant be described by anything of this world.
I knew then that I wanted to run with the horses, I just hadn't read the book and wasn't really familiar with Jeremiah's life.
 Oh my, there is so much to learn from these characters in our family history book, what we call the Bible. :)



"The world needs Christians who don't tolerate the complacency of their own lives."
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