An uplifting thought for the day

I'd like to get the ball rolling on some uplifting thoughts. I've been rising every morning at 6:30 am (early for me because classes don't start until 9:30 most days of the week) and journaling. Specifically, I've been reading a devotional for maybe 5 minutes, then writing a reflective response. I am going to share with you what I've read, and maybe a little of what I have thought about it to encourage others to think about the same topic but give different feedback.

Something that has really hit me hard in the last few weeks is Jeremiah 29:11-14. To put it in summary, it says God knows precisely what He thinks about me (about any of us!) and that His thoughts are to strengthen and establish us, to prosper us (!!!), and to give us hope and a future. He says, furthermore, that we will find Him when we seek Him with our whole heart, and that when we have found Him and connected with Him, He will restore our freedom.

Sometimes I think we are oblivious to the fact that we are captives. Maybe the children of Israel sometimes forgot they were in captivity, especially their children who grew up never having known what it was to live in Canaan. Moreover, can any of us say we have sought something with our WHOLE HEART? I did some thinking about Biblical characters who have sought God with their whole heart. I couldn't come up with anyone really other than Jesus. Jesus sought God the Father through agony and suffering in Gethsemane, but even then I don't think He was seeking Him with His whole heart. Rather, it was on the cross when Jesus' heart was broken because of the terrible ordeal He suffered and the peculiar absence of God's presence. I believe that when He cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" it was a cry that was seeking more than life itself just to know God, to touch God, and to have his assurance of blessing.

I do not mean to suggest that we need to go seek out a cross to be crucified on. I simply mean that we have so many distractions in our lives that we allow to act as substitutes for God. When I say WE, I mean we. I have distractions. I spend way too much putzing around on the web instead of doing what I can in the world around me. Do you ever have the same experience? What if we decided, as a community, that that was no longer acceptable? What if we started giving each other service homework? What if we made a commitment to each other as a group to get out into the world and do something productive? Would any of you like to help me brainstorm ideas? I believe that if we focus our energy and our efforts, we can do something amazing.

Have a great day,

David