Not long ago a couple shared a concern.  They had purchased a home for several million and were upside down in their loan.  "Are you having trouble making the payments?" I asked.  "No."  "Are you planning on selling?"  "No, we are going to retire in it." 

What was their problem?  It was that they spent too much time reflecting on the news and too little time reflecting on God's perspective.  It's not hard to be concerned about the present condition of the world economy.  America has long been exempt from the economic woes so prevalent elsewhere in the world.  We now find ourselves in a plummeting economy confirmed by soaring unemployment and sky-rocketing foreclosure rates.  If losing our homes and jobs are not bad enough, watching our retirement funds decrease in a crashing stock market is devastating.  Watching the news each night sends us to bed with the increasing dread that we may not have a future.  This is what the couple was feeling.  What they needed was God's view of their future.

The nation of Israel faced the same kind of fear in 600 B.C.  Their predicament was much worse than ours.  They had been captured and marched hundreds of miles to Babylon.  They were discouraged and without hope.  They could see no future.  In the midst of the crisis, God dictated a letter to them through the prophet Jeremiah - a letter to encourage them.  In the middle of the letter God said, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11).  The word, "prosper," is the Hebrew word, "shalom."  It embodies wholeness and peace.  He reminds them that He gives only good things although they may see them as harmful.  God wanted to encourage them with hope.  He uses a Hebrew word that described the scarlet cord that Rehab draped out her window as Israel destroyed Jericho but spared Rehab when they saw the cord.  The cord signified hope to Rehab and her family.

It's easy to view our future through the prism of our surrounding circumstances and not see the cord.  But we too are promised hope and peace.  In the midst of the worst economy most of us have ever experienced, we need to be reminded that God has a plan of us - a plan "not to harm" us. His plan is to work "all things" together in our lives so that we might look like Jesus (Romans 8:28-29). We are a people who are being transformed into his likeness on a daily basis (2 Corinthians 3:18) and it is sometimes a painful process.

Although we may not like it, "all things" includes the good and bad.  Years ago, our family was given a rock polisher.  We laugh about it now, but at the time, it drove us nuts!  The polisher consisted of two hard rubber containers into which you threw a hand full of small stones, some grit and water.  It was placed on a platform that rotated it 24/7.  No matter where it was in the house, you could hear the hum of the polisher.  Over the ensuing several months, we opened the container several times, washed the stones and put them back in with smaller size grit and some more water.  Months later we were ready for the final process.  We mixed the stones with water and grit that had the consistency of talcum powder and listened to the hum two more weeks.

None of us could believe the final results.  The stones were beautiful.  All the rough edges had been knocked off.  You could see into them.  They were smooth to the touch and looked nothing like the stones we started with.  Rock polishing describes the process God is taking each of us through to produce a changed person who acts like his Son.  The grit is the circumstances in life and the other rocks are the people in our lives.  When we want to be removed from the process, the polishing stops.

If we will trust him during this polishing time when the things around us are painful and appear terminal, we not only will discover God's plan, but we will also find his peace, joy, and hope. His shalom is still working on our behalf. Paul's prayer for the saints in Rome rings true for us today, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit," (Romans 15:13) 

As we are surrounded with uncertainty and hopelessness, let us not be discouraged, but let us hear the words again, ". . . I know the plans I have for you . . . ," plans for joy, peace and hope.  The polisher is not fun, but it produces in the children of God a beauty that resembles his Son.  Seeing our troubled times through this prism brings hope.  A hope that reminds us that God will care for his children.