How to Make Yourself at Home
I’ve just followed God’s people through the book of Jeremiah into their tragic exile in Babylon. They had rejected God’s word and ignored His intervention, unwilling to change their ways, and so the consequences God had warned them about, finally came. Their deportation occurred in waves over the course of 17 years as hundreds or thousands of them at a time were taken captive (Jeremiah 52:28-30).
How they must have mourned all that they lost. A move itself is difficult enough emotionally and spiritually, but a move as divine judgment could have clothed them in sackcloth and ashes for the rest of their lives. They could have justifiably lived in their new location in a perpetual state of grief and disconnection, veiled in black and living in the past. But the most shocking thing about this discipline for their sin is God’s four-fold instruction to them regarding their new home:
“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.
Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.
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.” Jeremiah 29:5-7
His message is essentially, Make yourself at home, and here’s how to do it.
At the end of this summer, Nate and I will celebrate 20 years of marriage. Over those years, we’ve lived in 4 states, 1 foreign country, and 9 apartments or houses along the way. That’s certainly not a record, but it’s more moves than I imagined for our family. Although none of our relocations happened for reasons like Judah’s all those millennia ago, the four-fold strategy God gave His people back then has served us well each time we’ve found ourselves in a new place:
Don’t live out of boxes. Unpack, decorate, garden, and live each day with a long-term mindset, rather than a temporary one. A temporary mindset is tempting, because it’s self-protection against the effort involved in starting over and the pain of eventual departure. But tears about leaving are better than cheers that you’re leaving.
Cultivate and celebrate new beginnings. Build deep enough relationships in the new place that you throw wedding showers and baby showers. God’s type of love multiplies, so with Him, you have enough love to keep giving.
Sarcasm about the new place or comparison to the last place delays your adjustment and denies God’s leadership. Instead, make it a better place because of your presence there with the experiences and insights you bring to it. Contribute to its good; don’t tear it down.
When you pray, include the geographical place where you live. Its peace will be your peace. Prayer softens our hearts, and that’s the change God is really after in His plan for our peace.
