Category: motivation

Faith, Life, motivation

A Letter to the Exiles

Sondra

Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.
“They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a
hope.

That’s a pretty popular scripture. If we are honest, probably all of us will
admit to hearing it or using it several times. I’ve heard or read it five times
just in the last week. It’s so popular that it’s cliché, really. We overuse it and
it loses its meaning entirely. Someone’s going through a bad time, and we
say, “God knows the plans He has for you.” We hear of someone who is
discouraged and ready to give up, and we say, “God has a plan and it’s a
good one!” Someone graduates and we tell them, “God knows what He has
planned for your future.” Someone is facing a life transition, and we say,
“God knows the plans He has for you. Plans to prosper you and not to
harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.”

That’s what we do. Empty platitudes. Used so much that it seems
thoughtless. I wonder how many of us are aware of the context in which it was written.

As I read Jeremiah 29 the other morning, I finally understood it.

Jeremiah 29 is a letter to the exiles. An exile is someone who has been
barred or banished from their home country. In this case, the children of
Israel had been deported from their home, the land that God had given
them, and taken to Babylon to live and serve the king. Not a happy time in
the life of the Israelites. One might wonder why this bad thing happened.
Who was responsible for it?

Here’s what I noticed as I read Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles.
v. 4: This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all
the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: GOD DID THIS. It’s
all part of His plan. Granted, it doesn’t seem like the “good” plan of v. 11,
but it clearly says that God has exiled them to Babylon. THERE’S A
REASON THEY ARE THERE.

So what are they supposed to do while they are there? Figure out a way to
get out of there as soon as possible? No. Verse 5 says, “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce.” PLAN TO STAY! For a while!

If they have to stay there, surely God doesn’t expect them to have a life
among the natives, right? Just lay low and wait. Right? Wrong. Verse 6 says, “Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may
have many grandchildren.” Multiply! Do not dwindle away! DO NOT DWINDLE AWAY.

There is another scripture that I love that talks about the same thing. In Exodus 1:12, in another time when the children of Israel found themselves as slaves in another country, the Bible says that “the more they ( the Egyptians) afflicted them (the Israelites), the more they grew. GOD DIDN’T EXPECT THEM TO LAY LOW AND HIDE. HE DIDN’T
WANT THEM TO BE DIMINISHED, BUT TO MULTIPLY AND GROW.

Ok, so they are expected to live there and plan to stay. But surely that’s it,
right? Nope. Verse 7 says, “And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”
WOW. ITS WELFARE WILL DETERMINE YOUR WELFARE. God is telling
them that the future you have is tied up in the future of that city.

So what about this future anyway?

Verse 10 says, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You will be in Babylon for seventy years.
But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and
I will bring you home again.” 70 YEARS??? And then, and only then, will
God do the good things He has promised and will bring them home again.
Verse 11 says, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans
for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.'”

So what’s this mean for us? What does it mean when we’re in a discouraging situation?
Or when things seem hopeless? When we’re in a season of life that we don’t like? When
our circumstances are less than desirable?

We can remember the lessons from the letter to the exiles.

  1. There is a reason for this season.
  2. Plan to stay a while.
  3. It’s meant for growth.
  4. Your future will be determined by your success or failure in this
    season.
  5. At the appointed time, the plans God has for you will materialize.
    Life is full of disappointments. I wish I had better news for you, but I don’t.
    There are seasons. Seasons of growth, seasons of death. Times when
    you’re on the mountain, and times when you’re in the valley. And here’s
    what I have found to be true. If you fix your focus on Jesus, you will see His
    glory. If you focus your gaze on the mountain, you can’t see the
    magnificence of God in the moment.

And just a little side note, think back to the 70 years in Babylon for a
minute. That’s the span of a life. God says that after His children spend a
lifetime as exiles here on Earth, He will then do the good things He has promised and bring them home again. Home is Heaven with Him. Now
those are plans I can look forward to!

Gratefulness, Life, motivation, photography, Uncategorized

Country Roads

Sondra

It’s the simple things. I don’t have to climb any more mountains for I have stood on the peaks already. I’ve floated on faith in the rivers at the bottom and found victories in the valleys.

Who are they?

Where did they come from? Have they always lived here?

Are there children? Pets?

Who are their parents/grandparents?

What do they do for a living?

What do they do in their free time?

What are their stories?

I know it’s none of my business, but I can’t help but wonder as I creep by the houses. What else am I supposed to do while driving this slow?

I try not to stare. I know that some of these houses have cameras pointing toward the road, catching the cars that drive by. Noticing the people who are looking for a reason to come back.

I am not coming back for anything. I’m just following my husband on the tractor, letting my mind wander a bit as we go.

I remember growing up that we knew our neighbors. We talked to them, went to church with them, sometimes worked with them. We sat on our porches and waved as they came out into their yards. We invited them over for dinner. Kids went outside and played with other kids. Do people do that anymore? Are we so busy that we don’t take time to get to know them? Are our noses stuck in our phones so much that we don’t look up to notice? Have people developed such anxiety and fear of other people?

Don’t take this the wrong way because I do scroll my social media to “catch up” with what my friends are doing, but maybe it’s time we put the phone down, unplugged, and invited the neighbor over for coffee instead? Yes, I know that can be risky. And I know that shrinks our world because we have family and friends who live so far away. I’m not saying technology doesn’t have its place and hasn’t made some things better. But sometimes, it’s made things worse.

Human connection has been replaced by screens and people don’t know how to treat each other anymore. We don’t trust each other. We don’t respect each other. We don’t know each other at a level that we used to. 

Today I am taking my own advice and having lunch with a friend I’ve had since kindergarten. ☺ We go way back to the time when there were no cell phones, social media, or cyber-bullying. We rode our bikes down to the creek. We played school in the old, abandoned house across the road. We sat up and talked all night. We recorded songs off the radio. We sat and ate cereal at her kitchen table. And we built a connection that even my family moving away when I was 14 couldn’t erase. Back in the time of long distance phone calls and no internet, we were able to keep that friendship alive even though we didn’t talk and see each other very often. There were even handwritten letters that we mailed through the mail. 

I know, times have changed, but don’t lose what’s important. Connection trumps technology every time.

Life, motivation

Front Porch Sittin’

Sondra

We got a little rain today. The first little bit in a couple weeks. It was a welcome sight as it cooled the temps off some and rinsed all the dust off my car. Bear and I sat outside on the porch watching the rain fall. He would dart out into it and run just as fast back under the cover of the porch. Me? I stayed under the cover, not willing to get wet.

And that’s basically how I’ve been living life for the past 40-something years. Safe on the porch. Dry. Boring. I like the sound of adventure, but I never get off the porch. I like watching the rain fall, but I don’t want to get wet. Why leave the comfort of my lawn chair?

Because life starts at the end of your comfort zone. -Neale Donald Walsch

Recently, I was talking to a couple friends about life. One is my age and the other is 17. Our perspectives are very different. We adults look back at life and wish we had done some stuff differently. The 17 year-old looks forward, with plans and goals and dreams of what she wants out of life. Are we wrong? Is she naive? No. Neither of those is true. 

My old friend mentioned something about picking your adventure and I immediately thought about those “choose your adventure” books we used to check out at the library when we were kids. You read a bit and then came to a choice. “If you choose to go out in the rain, go to page 21.” “If you choose to turn around and go back in the house, turn to page 35.” “If you choose to sit on the porch and watch it rain, the end. You’re done. Life has passed you by.”

I loved those books. If you made the wrong choice and your character ended up dead, you just went back to the page with the choices and chose another page. No harm, no foul. You made a mistake the first time, but it’s erased and you can make another choice and pretend that the other one never happened. That’s cheating, right? But wouldn’t life be so much better if it happened that way?

Maybe. But maybe not. If you could go back and erase all the mistakes you ever made, would you? I doubt it. Did they cause hurt and suffering? Undoubtedly so. Did you learn from them? Most of us did. The only things I would go back and change were the things I didn’t do. The places I didn’t go. The chances I didn’t take. Except for skydiving…I still probably wouldn’t go skydiving.

Life, motivation, photography

A Walk in the Rain

Sondra

It’s been raining here a lot lately. It’s cold for mid-May. And muddy. It’s been hard to plan camping trips on the weekends. It’s been nearly impossible to do any outside projects. And since I’m a preschool teacher, I have an even greater reason for disliking rain–inside recess. Ever tried keeping a bunch of 3, 4, and 5 year-olds contained in a classroom for hours? It’s not fun.

The end of this very challenging school year is in sight, and I’m tired. So despite the rain yesterday, I took a walk. I even had a couple furry companions go with me. We had no destination. We didn’t go anywhere special. We just walked up the driveway, trying to stay out of the mud and wet grass (I dislike wet socks and shoes).

I noticed this flower on my walk and had to take a picture. It reminded me that despite the consequences or circumstances we find ourselves surrounded by, we can rise up, square our shoulders, and stand tall.

Did you hear me? Rise up. No one can hold you down without your permission. No one can keep you down without your permission. Rise up and stand tall, whatever your circumstances. You got this.

It might be raining right now, but take a walk anyway. Let the rain wash away all the mud and the gunk. Let it refresh your soul.

🌼 Sondra

motivation

Monday Motivation

Sondra

It’s Monday morning. Again. But it’s not any ordinary Monday morning because today I got up early to write. I’m sitting in a dark, empty cemetery, watching the sun come up and writing. Sounds morbid, I guess, but also very motivating.

It’s motivating because no matter how long you live, life is short. Even if you get 100 years, which is good by today’s standards in the US, it’s still too short to do, see, and be all the things that you want to do, see, and be. And if you have idle years where you are just coasting through, well, it’s even shorter.

I’ve done that. So many years I have done that. I have been that girl just coasting through. I haven’t done what I wanted to do or gone where I wanted to go. And I am nowhere near who I want to be. So many times, I’ve settled because going for what I really wanted seemed hard. It seemed risky, and I’ve never been good with risks.
But this morning I woke up early because I’m ready to take a risk.

Ever since I learned to read, I’ve wanted to be a writer. It’s documented in yearbooks and other memory books from my childhood. When someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said “writer” (after the brief time in my early life when I said “singer”). It’s why I paid attention in English class. Because, let’s face it, why else would you pay attention in English class? It’s why I love to read. I’m not just reading for pleasure, I’m researching for what I want to do with my life. I’ve put a lot of effort into this thing already, but then I just let it set idle. Why would I do that?

Because I was scared. Even in this day of blogs and the internet and self-publishing and all the other ways to get my stuff out there, I was scared to do it. It was too hard and too risky and so I just didn’t. I went to work as a preschool teacher every day instead. Which, by the way, is one of the riskiest things a person could do with their life. There are tears and snot and mysterious wetness and weird smells that come from these little people. And they have no filter. They tell you exactly what they think and they don’t feel bad about it. Risky business.

So this morning, I woke up early to write before work because I’m safe. I can do this. I’m sitting in the dark cemetery because it reminds me how short life is and it motivates me to start doing and going and being me. If you could ask the people whose lives these headstones represent what they regret from their lives, I think the most popular answer would be that they regret what they didn’t do more than what they did.
I could be wrong, but what if I’m not?

–Sondra