Into the Deep: Going Beyond AnxietySample

Fear of the Future

Quite frequently, I hear of people choosing not to have children because of the way our world seems to be going. Many of us have lost sleep over climate change, inflation, affordable housing, and what feels like ever-increasing competition for ever-dwindling resources and the life they may offer. For some, this has led to the conviction that we will stop populating the earth with despoilers who will inevitably suffer.

Yet as righteous as this may sound, it ignores one important hope: that the children we bring into our world may live differently than previous generations, and that even if they suffer, they may also accomplish great good. The truth is, we cannot know the impact of raising children who are committed to loving their God and their neighbour.

This passage in Jeremiah is often quoted by those who want to reassure themselves that even if their plans have gone awry, God’s plan to give them a “hope and a future” will supersede failure, and possibly even suffering. And though I don’t wish to take away the comfort of this verse, it is worth noting that God spoke these words to the Israelites who had been exiled to Babylon. And Babylon was no benevolent empire to Israel. After all, the Temple of Solomon and the city of Jerusalem were destroyed by the Babylonians.

However, the assurance God offers Israel is that he is still at work. God’s plan continues despite the lack of tangible evidence. And God calls his people in exile to seek the good of the nation that ruined their kingdom, tore their people apart, and killed and enslaved them. I cannot imagine a stranger calling for people who yearned to be restored to their land. All the same, this was their call: to trust that God—his understanding, his ways, and all of who he is—was greater than their comprehension.

It is this strange call to Israel in exile that may speak to us in our present state: not yet home, and longing for things to be made right. It may even be that as we look to the good of the place in which we live as strangers, God’s saving plan may know a measure of fruition through us, and the kingdom of God may be realized more fully. Although we do not know what the actual shape of God’s kingdom will be like, there are touchstones that provide us comfort along the way: that he loves us, that he sees our pain, and that he is compassionate and strong in his embrace.

Questions:

1. In what ways are you feeling as though you are in exile? Does God’s call to Israel in Babylon resonate with you at this time?
2. When you reflect on the future, how does the tension between exile and hope in this passage speak to your own hopes and fears?