Tools for Captivity

Do you feel as if you are being held captive?  I do.  After talking to several friends over the weekend, we confessed to each other we were all feeling a little agitation, maybe some impatience with all this uncertainty in our lives. We're being asked to stay at home.  For some of us that might be the last place we want to be.  For others, it's a good change of pace and we are discovering all that we love about being home.

Whatever the feelings, they certainly are unusual and confining.

There is a story in the Bible book of Jeremiah about moving ahead with your life when you are in captivity. Jeremiah encourages the Israelite's to try to move ahead with their lives in the midst of their captivity in Babylon.

"Build homes and plan to stay: plant vineyards, foryou will be there many years. Marry and have children, and then find mates for them and have many grandchildren. Multiply! Don't dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Pray for her, for if Babylon has peace, so will you."

As the commentary says, "Life cannot grind toa halt during troubling times. We must adjust and try to keep moving. And if we find it difficult to pray for those in authority or the situation itself, work at it even harder. Do what you can to prosper."

I like that. In other words, "Stop your complaining and get to work!"

So today, I did what I could to prosper - I worked in the garden. It seems to be the place where I can always find meaningful work.   And while I cannot solve the problems of today, digging in dirt seems to help me work my way to a mental rest that soothes my soul and calms my anxious heart.

Today I transplanted Cast Iron Plants and Autumn Ferns that had grown  into a tangled mess near the watering hose.  My garden advisor keeps telling me we need to get rid of this mess because a snake is going to greet me one day and it won't be pleasant. So I gathered my tools and headed to the challenge before me. After poking around and making sure there were in fact no snakes to greet me, I managed to dig and divide the "mess" into a pleasing arrangement of  five new plants along a retaining wall. In only 3-5 years it will be lush and just as I envisioned it - these things take time.

Had I not owned a good shovel with a sharp edge, it might not have been so easy.  Sometimes we take for granted the things we have on hand to make a situation better.  Some of my best garden projects or even meals have come about by looking around, taking inventory of the tools I have and then letting the creative juices flow into a new creation.

What is it that we say? We can't do anything about our captivity, but we can do something about how we respond. Viktor Frankl, the Austrian neurologist who survived the Holocaust and authored Man's Search for Meaning said, " When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."

So,my question to you is what are you changing? What are you doing to prosper?

And when we do not know what to do, we can always reread the story of Jehoshaphat who said, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you (God)." II Chronicles 20:12.

And I am looking up.