I love the summer.  Even though I haven’t had a summer off since high school, I still get all excited for the summer.  To me, the summer is better than the New Year.  It is a time of transition.  It is a time of hope.

I decided this summer to focus heavily on the book of Jeremiah.  There is something about Jeremiah that has always intrigued me.  Maybe it is because I always heard him referred to as “the crying prophet.”  I like anyone who cries, especially a man who cries.  It is still not cool for most men to cry.  You never see Dirty Harry crying.

Yet I cry all the time.  My heart is constantly breaking.  There is so much injustice in the world and I see it everyday on the streets in San Francisco.  I have friends who seem to sabotage themselves on purpose just when they are about to break a vicious cycle that is keeping them captive.

Life is tough and God created me with a heart that feels.  That is why I relate to people like Jeremiah and even to Jesus.  They are people that feel.

Right in the beginning of Jeremiah’s life, the word of the LORD came to him saying:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.  I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” -Jeremiah 1:5

A dialogue ensues about Jeremiah’s call.  Jeremiah tells God that he is too young, but God tells him he must go everywhere that He calls him to.

Jeremiah had a direct call, but it was a very private call.  The commentary I was reading says:

“No one could confirm or deny that he possessed this calling; it was between himself and God.  Just as certainly however no one could prove or disprove the truth of his prophecies save the events themselves about which they testified.  It was a supremely private even to Jeremiah, while at the same time public, national, and ultimately international in its significance and consequences” (Clements pg 16)

Lately I have been thinking a bit about truth.  I know what I believe on many things, especially a lot of things about God.  These convictions have been formed, shaped, and molded throughout my life by a myriad of things (the Bible, travel, personal experience(s), etc).  I try to position myself in a way as an active learner, humbly wanting to grow.  I try to listen to what people have to say before I react.  And when I question something I pray about it and bounce my questions off others.

Yet lately, I have come across a lot of people that tell me they have it all figured out.  This ranges from views of God, the Bible, politics, being a good husband, how to balance money, etc.  It doesn’t bother me when people say they have it figured out as much as it does when people tell me why I don’t agree with them.  Sometimes it is because I am too young.  Other times it is because I am naive.  A few times recently people have told me the devil has screwed with my thoughts.  Why is honest dialogue so hard?  Why instead of telling me why what I think is wrong do people not listen first?  Why do we react defensively instead of seeing if what other people say comes from God?

This is so hard on me.  It is not hard on me that people disagree with me.  It is hard on me because I am sensitive.  It is hard on me because I care.  It is hard on me because I believe in what God has spoken to me with me whole heart.  I am not worried about something knocking me off my convictions.  But my heart breaks when people cannot dialogue, especially about convictions.  How can we be a people that actively listens to each other without pushing each other away, even when what they are saying is controversial?

Jeremiah had a deep calling.  This calling was one that many people questioned throughout his life.  Is it any wonder that many in the Bible like Amos, Jeremiah, Micah, Micaiah, Paul and even Jesus were called heretics.  It is easy to hate those that disrupt the status quo.  It is hard when people call out the things being done in the name of God are not of God.

Some people are lucky and see the people change their hearts and hear what they were actually saying.  Others, like Jeremiah, didn’t see much change at all.  Jeremiah lived his calling in a time when Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians.  He pleaded with the people to changed their ways.  He cried for his people as his city was burned.  He lamented as his people were taken into captivity.

Jeremiah’s call, while doubted by many, was true.  I pray that when God speaks to us, we hold true to what He is calling us to.  Even if our hearts break in the process.

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