Blooming In The Barren Land. . . It Can Be Done

While in captivity in a foreign land the Israelites were asked to sing songs for their captors.
To sing songs of joy amidst deep heartache and sadness;
while they were mourning their homeland and all they knew. 

This act unthinkable. 

Yet, they had been told by God. 

Plant gardens, build houses and multiply during this time.
Jeremiah 29

Even during the hard times. 

When you feel you can go on no longer. 

Settle where you are placed. 

Be doing the work I have for you because I will restore this land. 

I will bring Israel back; and you need to be ready. 

So often when we are in the throes of heartache and pain,
 the last thing we want to do is sing songs of joy.
Or rejoice. 

Our hearts are filled with pain and the days seem long and tortuous. 

Yet these are God's wishes for us. 

 He sees the whole picture and He knows what is coming. 

We need to be obedient. 
Even when everything in us cries the opposite. 

He is there. He is in everything we do. 

His love encompasses all. 

Psalm 137:4

 Right there my heart hurts.
How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? 

I know that feeling. 

I don't want to sing songs of joy. 

I want to wallow. 

I feel pain. 

Deep and agonizing. 

I long for my son.
I want to snuggle with our puppy.

I long for this cancer to be gone and the port taken out. 

I want my mom back and my dad to not be a companion with the memory thief.
But these thoughts are self deprecating. 

They force my whole being to turn inward. 

Selfish. 

Unyielding. 

Singing praise while in the foreign land is just what needs to be done. 

It is a commandment. 

And it is good. 

There is power in stepping toward what God deems. 

The Israelites were afraid of forgetting.
 It had been done.
There is a history.
A legacy of forgetting and years of barrenness in the wilderness. 

I do not want that. 

I do not want to walk in a barren land. 

I seek the fertile and prolific. 

The land which gives forth great yield.

So I will press on remembering. 

Singing praises in the wilderness.
Until His return.