It's hard to believe but here we are finishing up July and heading into August.  Life feels very out-of-sync.  Normally, the month of July would be a frenzy of activity as we prepare for our country-wide outreach camp(s).  We are usually doing lots of back-and-forth trips to the camping area and I am usually pouring over numerous checklists.  So, it feels especially strange to be very "still" this month.  On the bright side, since we weren't running all over the place we actually were able to have a little birthday celebration for Benji!  (By celebration, I mean that I made a cake, there was singing and birthday candles and lunch with those on our little homestead here).

He's 3!!!

The other week I was able to visit a friend, and she passed on some kid puzzles and books to us (and there was much rejoicing!)  Anything new or different is a life saver at this point.  While some restrictions have been lifted, it is still not super easy to get around or do many gatherings.  Our church continues to meet online as well as our small bible study groups.  We continue to limit our outings to the necessities and masks are required in public (even inside your own car).  

I've been reading through Jeremiah during this time.  Which honestly, has not always been the most uplifting.  In chapter 38, Jeremiah is (once again) not very popular with the officials.  He is held captive in the courts of the palace with a daily allotment of a piece of bread.  Then the bread runs out.  God only gives him messages of doom and death.  Things are bad.  Then he is thrown into a cistern.  

verse 8:  There wasn't any water in the cistern, only mud.  Jeremiah sank into the mud.  

Talk about from bad to worse.  I just think about being lowered down into a cistern and things getting darker as you go down deeper.  Then, the mud.  At this very moment my husband is helping to clean out the little man-made pond on the property.  They are literally scooping out mud from the bottom.  The mud is like a lava flow, coming from that area, oozing down into other pathways.  There is Jeremiah, literally standing in mud.  What hope does he have?  What can he hold on to?  Filled with messages of doom from God, it is a depressing situation.  But there is always hope.  Someone comes and speaks on behalf of Jeremiah and gets permission to get him out.  A small group of men piece together old cloth and lower a rope to Jeremiah.  

verse 13:  And so they pulled Jeremiah up out of the cistern by the ropes.  

When I am in a pit or feeling stuck in the mud, what truth do I cling to?  Who lowers a rope for me?  

If I am not the one in the pit, who am I lowering a rope for?  It might not seem like I have the necessary tools to help someone but like those men, they looked around and used what they had.  Find other people to help.  If you are in the pit, let others help you.  Jeremiah was not going to get out of that cistern on his own.  Getting out of the mud is a process.  Even once he was out, Jeremiah was still confined, still held captive.  Whether you got yourself stuck in the mud or someone else puts you there, trust in the Lord.   

Chapter 40, verse 4:  But today, Jeremiah, I'm setting you free, taking the chains off your hands... Look, the whole land stretches out before you.  Do what you like.  Go and live wherever you wish.  

Not only is Jeremiah completely set free but sent with a gift! 

verse 5:  The captain of the bodyguard gave him food for the journey and a parting gift and sent him off.  

Oh friends, these are some muddy days/months we've been in.  But Jesus, day after day, lowers us a rope, woven of love and hope and it is up to us whether we choose to hold on to it.  I hope you do.  

Here comes the mud!

This is not the pond... 

Working together to get out of the mud ;)

August 2020 Newsletter