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Seek The Welfare of the City – The Formed Future · Still, Here

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is still here.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: A quiet moment to remember what is true.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to these words from the book of Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 7.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive,
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: and pray to Yahweh for it, for in its peace you will have peace.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: These words were written to people who did not want to be where they were.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Israel was living in exile.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Babylon represented loss, displacement, and a culture they would never have chosen as home.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: If anyone had reason to withdraw and simply wait for a better day, it was them.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Pray for the city.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Seek its welfare.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: The word underneath that invitation is shalom.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: We often translate shalom as peace, but it is richer than the absence of conflict.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Shalom is wholeness.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is life brought into right relationship.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: It is the movement of what is fractured to what is whole.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: That means God was not asking His people merely to survive Babylon.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: He was asking them to become a healing presence within it.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: That matters for us because it is easy to treat a changing culture as either a place
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: to escape or an enemy to defeat.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: We can become so focused on protecting ourselves from what feels broken that
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: That we stop asking what faithful presence might look like in the middle of it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the places around you do not have to become your enemies.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Your workplace,
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: neighborhood, church, family,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: online community,
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: creative field,
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: and even the technologies you use can become places where you practice wholeness.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Wholeness includes the whole person.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: A society can become more prosperous,
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: more efficient, and more connected while people become spiritually thinner.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: We can solve practical problems and still lose meaning.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: We can communicate constantly and still feel unseen.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: We can have more choices and less wisdom about what is worth choosing.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Seeking shalom means caring about all of human life.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: It means honoring dignity,
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: telling the truth,
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: creating beauty,
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: practicing justice and mercy,
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: building trustworthy systems,
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: repairing relationships,
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: making room for prayer,
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: refusing to reduce people to categories, customers, problems, or data points.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: You will not heal an entire city today.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: That is not the assignment.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Shalom usually enters through what is within reach.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: One conversation can become more humane.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: One process can become more just.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: One relationship can become less defended.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: One room can become calmer because you entered it centered in Christ.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Ask a simple question about one place God has given you.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: What would make this place a little more whole?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Then, do the part that belongs to you.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Pray for the people there.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Bring clarity where there is confusion.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Offer help.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Repair a connection.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Listen before reacting.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: God told exiles to seek the welfare of a city they did not choose.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps part of becoming a formed future is learning to carry shalom into
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: the places we have actually been given.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Take a moment for this prayer of presence.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, teach me to seek peace where you have placed me.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Open my eyes to the fractures within reach.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Before you move into the rest of your day, carry this prayer with you.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Make me an instrument of peace,
• 4:46
  [music]
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Bring wholeness through my life.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Make me an instrument of peace.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Bring wholeness through my life.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Make me an instrument of peace.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Bring wholeness through my life.
• 5:34
  [music]
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, stay steady, stay open, stay present.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: You are still here.