You Are Here, Be Where You Are!
New City has always attracted a transient group of people - college students, grad students, young families from other places. Many times transient people know they are transient, they have no intention of seeing Macon or Milledgeville become their home. Macon and Milledgeville are just stops on the way... on the way to a new life, a new career, a new place.
In a way, it reminds me of Israel's captivity to Babylon - not in the sense that transient people can't leave, but in the sense that Macon is simply not the final destination. The captive Hebrew people wanted to return to Jerusalem. They had no desire to be in Babylon. This caused them to withdraw from Babylon, to separate from life in Babylon and worse, to remove themselves from God's intention for them.
“These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon... Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 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 wrote to the people in Babylon on behalf of God to call them back to God's intention and call them out of their absence and withdrawal. God, through the prophet is telling his people to invest in the city, to thrive in the city, to LIVE in Babylon. He is calling His people to "Be Where You Are!"
I want to shout this loudly to all of our transients - BE WHERE YOU ARE - Here. God has brought you here for a season. Maybe it is a short season, maybe it is a long season, I have no idea. But while you are here, be here. Find a church home, become a member, serve in the church, serve through the church. Become a part of the community of the church - the family. Be a blessing to the church and to the city and its people. Remember that as a Christ follower, you are always on his mission - "as you go" - being His hands and feet, proclaiming His glories, serving as His ambassador and as a part of His family.
And remember... being here, I mean really being here - participating, investing, LIVING - is not only for the good of the city, it is for your good.
You are Here. Be All In. Be Where You Are!
