This week we had former Riverbend elder Matt Kay visiting us from the church they have planted in NYC: Hope East Village. We looked at Jeremiah 29, the context of which is God addressing an Israelite people who just found out that they weren’t to be in exile in Babylon just 2 years (as a false prophet was previously saying), but actually it was going to be 70 years. An entire lifetime. The way God addresses them in chapter 29 gives us a vision for the way we live our lives wherever it is we find ourselves. Be present. Invest in people in that place. Seek the well-being and shalom for the community around you. It can be easy to always think of, and be wrapped up in, the “next step”, and when we do that, we miss out on the fullness of what God is doing in our present situation- both through us and to us.