The “unmaking” of our souls is quite an unpleasant topic. But in order to be re-made, rebuilt, restored, most often some major reconstruction needs to take place so God can do new things.
Jeremiah lived in the time leading up to the fall of Jerusalem in 589 BC. This was after Israel was taken captive (722 BC) and Judah was left as the representative of the true God on earth
Some of you have overcome some intense and fierce obstacles in your lives. You have stuck with God in darkness and confusion. Some may still be in the darkness and confusion, wondering where God went, others may be seeing some rays of light. We do know this, we are all being intimately pursued by our Creator & Savior no matter how chaotic our life seems. Jeremiah was finding this.
Suffering, loss and struggle are crucibles for transformation. IF we let them be so. It can go the other way toward isolation, self-pity, bitterness, and stunted growth. So, let’s be watchful of our souls! They can get used to some of those dark places and actually start to use them as excuses!
Taking a glimpse of God’s heart, we see His longing for the well-being of His people:
“Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
Jeremiah 2:11-13
Listen to God’s heart. The priests and prophets were false and didn’t follow God. The people had an outward form of following God claiming the temple of the Lord, like a good-luck charm. God continued to warn them “I will refine them…what else can I do?” (Jeremiah 9:7, 8) They had broken the covenant forcing God to act.
While the people of God were being unmade, Jeremiah was too. His paradigms shifted as he listened to God! Our unmaking isn’t always due to sin, it’s because God created us to be so much more. Jeremiah was wrestling with God asking “How long!?” The rich were getting richer, the poor getting poorer. There was oppression, sexual perversion, blasphemy and corruption. Sound familiar?
Jeremiah brings his case to God for justice. God’s answer baffles him.
You will become more… “Do you want a tame domesticated life or do you want to live beyond yourself?”
– Eugene Peterson explains Jeremiah 12:1-5 in Run with the Horses.
Some days I prefer a domesticated life…
God is up to something so much bigger than we are aware of. What we do in this little life will affect our eternity, and when we’re there, what will we wish we had done here?! Have you had or are you having a time in your life where God unmakes you? (i.e. unravels some of your paradigms of who He is and who you are or to how life should be?)
Often, we need to be stretched in order for us to live at our best. Are we giving up on growth and joy? Jeremiah was about to. Until He took on God’s cause, looked above his harrowing circumstances and started living beyond himself.
In what area of your life can you reach beyond yourself today?