Dear church family,
August is upon us, which means a season of resettling has arrived. The hustle and bustle of summer is ending and the rhythms of school and work are returning. Some of us are squeezing in last minute campouts or lake trips, while all of us are noticing more traffic on 107 due to school buses resuming their routes and WCU students moving back in. It’s a busy and beautiful time of transition.
I wonder, as we enter into August, what the invitation is for us as individuals and as a church family? A verse from Jeremiah comes to mind for me: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah is writing to the Israelites during a difficult period, in which they find themselves living as “strangers in a strange land” under Babylonian oppression. Yet in the midst of it, Jeremiah calls them to seek peace and prosperity or, as the original Hebrew says it, shalom. Don’t fight, don’t flee, don’t fawn, don’t freeze – but seek shalom.
I wonder how you might seek shalom this month, regardless of your lifestage? Shalom not just for yourself, but for the city to which God has carried you, believing that if it prospers, you too will prosper? To put it in the terms of 1 John, how might you shine the light of Christ for others, so that you too can live in the light? Think about the relationships God has put in your path – whether in your family, workplace, neighborhood, or community – and pray for the courage to enter into them with love.
And let’s pray especially for this shalom in our country as we continue to move through a tumultuous election season. It’s easy for some of us to get anxious or enraged while reading the news these days, while some of us want to stick our heads in the sand and wait for the storm to pass. (And I confess, I find myself vacillating from one response to the other.) But the call of Jeremiah and John remains the same: Seek shalom. Shine the light of Christ. Love the Lord and love your neighbors. Hold onto hope because Jesus is in charge, and apart from him we can do nothing.
Yours in Christ,
Blake
Image: Shalom 20 - Jewish Hebrew Peace Letters by Sharon Cummings