SETTLING IN WHEN IT FEELS UNCOMFORTABLE • LENTEN REFLECTIONS 2025

If you’re anything like me, you may feel like the turmoil we are living through these days is chaotic, confusing and even upending. Many days I even find myself having some anxiety or fear as each time I turn on the news or pop on my social media as the newest trend or highlight fills my feed. 

Every week in church we learn more about what it looks like to trust God and be more like him. How to surrender and turn to him in the darkest, most challenging moments. But how can we rest when the world is moving at a pace that we can’t keep up with? How do we trust God when life doesn’t make sense? The season of Lent is a time to slow down. To remember. To pause and to take a moment to remember who He is. When it seems that all is hopeless around us, he does not leave us to ourselves. 

Jeremiah’s Call

In one of Missio’s Sunday School classes we are studying the book of Jeremiah. 

If one trend is true in the first half of the book, it is that over, and over again the people of Israel chose idols and heeded false prophets instead of listening to Jeremiah and obeying God's words. Over and over again, God told them of the consequences of their actions if they did not turn their hearts back to him; and yet they still chose their own ways. In Jeremiah 29, after many chapters of turmoil, he tells the exiles to “build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce… seek the welfare of the city.” This continues on to the familiar Jeremiah 29:11:“for I know the plans I have for you… plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

The people in these chapters had faced false prophets, wicked kings, and years of confusion and chaos. Their home was not a restful place. I imagine hearing that they needed to stay where they were and “make homes” might not excite them at first – they might want to go somewhere a little more comfortable or somewhere that felt more safe. Yet God told them to settle into the land, get comfortable and remain faithful. He reminded them that he was still with them. He saw them and knew of their struggles. His promises would be fulfilled. He was not leaving their side.

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places I have driven you.”
-Jeremiah 29:13, 14

Many times in life I feel uncomfortable or as if I’m not sure what God is up to. Sometimes I even feel like I’m not sure where he is. As I read about the experience of the Israelites here, I see myself and my own experience. We know that God has a plan…but what is it, and how long will it take?  In this passage, God tells them to get comfortable in a most uncomfortable situation. These “tasks” he gives them could take awhile – building homes…planting gardens… growing families… it will take seasons, even years. But God is ready to protect and care for his people for as long as it will take. He has a plan that goes beyond what our eyes can see and beyond what we understand. 

In this Lenten season, it’s very easy for me to get caught up in the chaos. Caught up in the busyness. Caught up in the momentum of the world around us. But I think God is calling us to a bigger picture – settle into where He has called us right here and now. 

As we settle, we learn to wait on the Lord. Pause and remember who we are in him. Build our homes. Plant our gardens. Take the time to reflect on God’s goodness, and know that his plan truly is for our hope and always for his good.

Submitted by Melissa Thomas