Junebugs, Junipers, and Jesus

“Flee, save your lives! And be like the juniper in the wilderness." Jeremiah 48:6

It is a beautiful thing to be unsettled from comfortable places in this life.  Like the Junebug catching you by surprise, flying into your hair and not easily untangled but fully realized, our Heavenly Father lovingly finds ways to awaken our senses to His presence, fully realized.  He calls us beyond mediocrity or being a casual acquaintance to us in any way.

He requires more.

When the Prophet Jeremiah calls to the people at God's bidding to flee and save their lives, becoming like the juniper in the wilderness, it is a call to abandon everything in the world that grips them and keeps them from total submission to the will of God.  It is a call to have nothing and yet have everything.  It is a call to abandon pride, not just for pride's sake, but to have something far greater.

Him.

God calls us to the same thing today.  Do you hear Him?  He is beckoning you.  Calling you away from a lost and dying world you may have become slave to—a world that keeps us from God's highest and best use, His call upon our lives.  His is a call to let go of anything and everything we have built.  It begs us to the humble place, the place where there is only Jesus.  It is a new and different place, an unsettled and uncomfortable place.

And it is a fearless place because He is there.

The TLB translation of Psalm 105:4 states, "Search for him and for his strength, and keep on searching!"

I don't know about you, but I shall never be finished in this pursuit of Him for each new discovery is richer still.

This summer as the Junebugs fly and the rich fragrance of the juniper awakens our senses, may we be evermore enraptured by the flight and fragrance of Jesus, our pursuit of Him, and all the ways He calls us to depend upon Him.

"If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me." Psalm 139:9-10

Goodnight, Runners.