I am pulling out a piece of Eugene Peterson's book, Run with the Horses --- I actually stole it not from his book, (I don't have the book) but from my cousin's blog.She used it recently when she posted a letter written by her Pastor. His 15 year old daughter is fighting Cancer.
His letter is called, Cancer and the Kingdom: Embracing Exile, a Future, and a Hope
Right now we are praying for three people with Cancer. I bet that number is low compared to many of you. If you have the time, go read the letter written by a pastor at her church, that gives this much more context. I am just pulling out a tiny piece of the letter.
I like what Peterson writes in this paragraph.
Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Throw yourselves into the place in which you find yourself, but not on its terms, on God's terms. Pray. Search for that center in which God's will is being worked out and work from that center....The aim of the person of faith is not to be as comfortable as possible but to live as deeply and thoroughly as possible - to deal with the reality of life, discover truth, created beauty, act out of love....You are in Babylon for a long time. You better make the best of it. Don't just get along, waiting for some miraculous intervention. Build houses, plant gardens, marry husbands, marry wives, have children, pray for the wholeness of Babylon, and do everything you can to develop that wholeness. The only place you have to be human is where you are right now. The only opportunity you will ever have to live by faith is in the circumstances you are provided this very day: this house you live in, this family you find yourself in, this job you have been given, the weather conditions that prevail at this moment.