Singing in Babylon: Finding Purpose in Life's Second ChoicesНамуна

Jesus knows about exile. In a sense, the incarnation of Jesus—His coming to this earth—was an experience of total exile, as He laid aside His majesty and the glories of heaven, exchanging them for the challenges and difficulties of life on this planet. As a baby, He was taken to a foreign land, Egypt, to escape Herod’s program of infanticide. He experienced rejection from His own village, Nazareth, and had to relocate His base to Capernaum. As I mentioned earlier, in Gethsemane, He asked the Father if there was any other way to complete His work other than taking the pathway to the cross, a request that was denied, and so He experienced the ultimate “second choice”—a death sentence from Pilate. Jesus knows all about exile, and is able to fully empathize with us in our experience of exile and second choice living.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:15–16).

We live in Babylon.

But just as Daniel and his friends discovered that God lived where they lived too, so we affirm that God has taken up residence with us, in us, and will work through us, even as we live in a strange land. Jesus promised His followers pressure and presence. While we are never assured that we will not go through the fire, we are always assured that, in the agony of the fire, we are not and will never be abandoned. Wherever we find ourselves, and whatever circumstances are ours, we share our address with Him. 

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