Dare to Believe

Jer 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

On any journey, it’s normal, wise even, to look back and remember where you were compared to where you are and think about how you got there. I’m not always intentional about such reflection. Sometimes a song or a smell or any other number of stimuli will trigger a memory and drop me into a reflective state of mind. It was Jeremiah 29:13 triggered my memories today.

I was in my early thirties. I’d arrived at the circumstantial destination I’d dreamed of at 18: the “Happy” place- married, mom of a perfect little girl, big 2 story house, successful career, fit body. Finding it not-so-amazing and fulfilling as I’d imagined, I was ripe for a better hope. My heart was questioning everything in that season. After all, I’d been wrong about what kind of life would make me happy; what else did I have wrong? I wasn’t ready to abandon faith in God completely; I’d experienced Him enough to believe He existed. I was ready to re-think everything I thought I understood about Him though. It was Jeremiah 17:7-8 that painted a picture of the kind of life I wanted to live: one that is steadily beautiful no matter what happens.

Jeremiah 17:7-8

Blessed is He who trusts in the LORD and has made the LORD his hope and confidence. He’ll be like a tree planted by the riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.

I had no idea what it would take to learn to trust Him or to get to the place of making Him my full hope and confidence. I just wanted what was promised on the other side of that. I guess that’s the beauty of losses, messes and even the crushing or a hope or a dream: the willingness to shift your focus to a better one. I remember the start of that journey. The disappointments of the previous one motivated me to dare to believe that there was a path to a deep and abiding joy that wasn’t dependent upon the circumstances of life. I’m sure it was the quest to figure out how to trust the Lord and make Him my hope and confidence that caused Jer 29:13 to jump off the page at me.

So how have I journeyed from where I was to where I am today? One great and precious promise at a time. Dare to Believe.