A new take on Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord..."

We've all heard this verse before. Most of us have probably written it in a card, texted it to someone or rattled it off when someone is doubting or nervous about an unexpected circumstance happening in their life. 

The first time I heard this verse was in the 8th grade. My mentor at the time, Julie Staley, would constantly recite it to her daughter and me in the backseat of her Volvo when we complained about normal junior high girl problems. It's a wonderful verse and a great reminder of God's hand guiding our way. In class on Monday, I was blown away by how huge this verse is when read in its context.

AJ gave us a bit of a history lesson that has my head still spinning, but here's a quick background:

Babylon came into Jerusalem and completely and utterly annihilated it. Not only that, but they took people, exiles, back to Babylon. So, Jeremiah chapter 29 is Jeremiah's letter to the exiles while they're in Babylon. I'd encourage you to read the whole chapter, but here's a bit of it:

vs.7 "But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare..." 

In verse 1-6, Jeremiah is quoting instructions from the Lord to find houses, get married and build a garden in Babylon. So, they've just been totally attacked and had their entire lives destroyed, now they've pretty much been kidnapped and he basically tells them, get comfortable. It's going to be a while.


Seek the welfare of Babylon. The city that raped your children, murdered your family, burned your homes and defiled your temples. Then took you back to live with them.

This is an entirely new take on 'turning the other cheek'. AJ used this passage as a compass for our hearts. How do we feel about the city we're in? How do we feel about Portland?

I feel incredibly convicted when I recount situations God put me in that I Jonah-ed...

(Jonahed: verb. To run away or leave from a situation God puts you in because you're selfish/lazy/prideful. I made it up and would like it to be a real word, feel free to pass it along.)

Jobs that I thought were hard and not very rewarding, relationships with people who were annoying or hard to love, a city that I found disgraceful. We were reminded in class that ministry can't happen when we're pointing fingers, comparing wounds or keeping a record of wrongs.

If God can use Jerusalem in Babylon, he can use us wherever he has us. We just need to have willing hearts that trust him when he says he knows what he's doing. Nothing is out of his hands, even outrageously devastating things.

Knowing a bit of the context, doesn't verse 11 seem like a huge breath of fresh air?

Just a thought.

Grammar snob.

All growing up, I remember my mother cutting me off in the middle of sentences and asking me "Who? Who did that? You and WHO?" to point out that I was mistakenly saying "Me and Ash" as opposed to "Ashby and I" or whatever proper form the sentence called for. This led me to become more aware of other people's sentence structure, pronunciation and overall grammar.

People who misspell or misuse a word get very little grace in my book. I instantly notice typos, wrongly used forms of 'there' or any other common, elementary mistake. My sister and I have blacklisted people who use weather instead of whether. It's become our number one deal-breaker in relationships.

So, what does this have to do with the Bible?

Well. In class, we were going over a few of the basic basics. Who wrote what book, where it came from, etc etc. The Old Testament is written mostly in Hebrew, some Aramaic.

The New Testament, which holds the story of Jesus Christ life and death,
                                is written in common Greek.
The lowest form, the least impressive. The stuff fishermen and slaves could understand, IF they could read.

My teacher explained to us that the scribes were the highly educated people who knew how to read and write among a culture that didn't know how to. But God chose his living Word, the only book given to us, to be written in the 'dumbest', least eloquent form of the language. He wanted everyone to be able to read it, understand it and apply it across the social class spectrum. He didn't write a Shakespearean version of Scripture expecting us to catch up to it. 


God does not care about grammar, spelling, 
extensive vocabulary or the use of semi-colons.

We do, a lot. We hold spelling bees, we practice penmanship and give vocabulary tests. We judge the intelligence of a person based on whether or not they can move letters around well enough.

Shouldn't we be a people marked by love, grace, forgiveness and truth instead of linguistics?

Just a thought.