July 16

”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 NIV)

Fyodor Dostoevsky describes in “The House of the Dead” the terrible circumstances that the Siberian prisoners were forced to endure. Among other things he tells about the hard punitive work that the prisoners had to perform. They had to break bricks, dig ditches and they worked in construction. But he points out that the thing that kept them going was the fact that the work was meaningful. There was a goal and a purpose behind such work. And Dostoevsky writes:

But if he (the prisoner) was forced to, as an example, pour water from one bucket to another and then back again – then I think that the person being punished would in a matter of a few days go and hang himself … to, at the very least, die and escape the humiliation, the shame, the mindless abuse.

I agree with Dostoevsky. If life did not have a meaning it would be a mindless abuse. But there exists a purpose. God has a plan for every person’s life; that insight gives me the power to press on.

Prayer

Lord, thank You that every moment this day has a meaning. Help me to enter into and participate in that which You have planned for me today. Help me to recognize Your hand in all that happens.