I really admire the courage of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 21:1-5,

"This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us.  Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.  Then Jeremiah said to them: Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls.  And I will bring them together into the midst of this city.  I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath."

To fully appreciate what Jeremiah is doing here, you need to know that in chapter 20, Pashur (also a priest) beat up Jeremiah for proclaiming destruction against Judah as the Lord had commanded him.  Fresh off this beating, Pashur and Zephaniah show up asking for Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord for them, hoping He will "deal with them according to his wonderful deeds."  As a side note, I find it pretty gutsy that Pashur, Zephaniah, and Zedekiah would ask anything of Jeremiah, let alone that they were expecting to find favor with God.  Anyway, it is difficult enough to tell Christian people something they may not want to hear, even more difficult to tell unsaved people something they may not want to hear.  But here is Jeremiah, knowing full well that these guys won't like the message, and knowing they aren't afraid to inflict pain.  In the face of this, he boldly and unashamedly proclaims the message God gave to him.  Might we have the boldness and confidence that Jeremiah showed.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that God does things differently than I expect.  His ways are, after all, higher than our ways, and His thoughts beyond understanding.  This week, however, He blessed me in a way that I could not have expected, and yet I understand it, at least to some degree.

Okay, enough with the cryptic intro, right?  Awhile back I was driving home when our suburban suddenly stalled in traffic.  Making a very long story short, I had it towed back to my house, but because of the snow we had at the time, the tow truck driver could not get it onto my parking pad in back, and so left it parked on the street in front of my house.  I did not view this as a problem since on street parking is allowed in Minneapolis.  At any rate, I have not been able to ascertain what is wrong with the vehicle and have left it there, though occasionally I have followed suggestions to check this or that or replace a part.  A family in our church has been gracious enough to allow us to use a vehicle they are not using at the moment.  Anyway, this past week it was recommended that I change the fuel pump, even though we had ruled that out earlier.  So, I siphoned out the gas, removed the fuel tank, and replaced the fuel pump.  However, I work a full time job, and it is not at a garage, so this process took me several days. 

Thursday night I was at Men's Bible Study when I got a frantic call from my wife - the city wanted to tow our vehicle and was going to do so as soon as the tow truck arrived.  I begged a friend for help and raced home as fast as I could.  When we arrived we could not talk the traffic cop out of her opinion that our vehicle had been abandoned for more than 72 hours (evidently how long a vehicle is allowed to be parked in one place on the street) or that it was not dangerous (the fuel tank on the ground had her very frightened).  The suburban was on jack stands and as I jacked it up and removed the stands, the tow truck arrived.  This is where I discovered how I had been blessed.  I found out that this was the second tow truck to arrive at our house on Thursday.  The first truck had come in the morning while I was at work and refused to tow our vehicle because of the (detached) fuel tank hanging down!  Not only that, but the second truck that had just arrived had been misinformed as to what type of vehicle they would be towing and were not equipped to tow our vehicle!  This bought my friend, a neighbor, my wife, and I enough time to push the suburban around to the back of our house and on to our parking pad (the snow had melted in the days leading up to this event).  That would have been enough of a blessing, but there was one more thing.  I had needed to remove the rear license plate to access a captive nut that had broken in order to let the fuel tank down.  At the time I had been very frustrated, but the result was that the primary ticket we received from the traffic cop was for failure to display a rear license plate - a ticket, I am told, which is easy to rectify by showing the court officer some proof (like a picture), that the plate has since been installed - kind of like a proof of insurance ticket. 

So, while I was frustrated with a broken nut, and my wife was panicked, and we were ticketed and threatened - in the end our vehicle was not towed, and we will probably not have to pay a large fine, oh, and I finished reattaching everything today!  Isn't God good to us? :)  Please pray that both of our tickets will be dismissed as we are hoping... and remember that God cares for us, answers us, and blesses us - even when we have no idea how.

I think it is easy for Christians to get depressed when they look around them and see the condition of our society.  It seems that on the grand scale we are losing every battle.  From promiscuity to politics to tolerance and inclusion to media bias, the victories are few and far between.  Be honest, there are times when you've cried out to God and said, "why do the wicked prosper?!"   I think it is also confusing at times to know how to pray.  Are we selfish to pray for the wicked to get their due?  Do we need to tack on "Thy will be done" at the end of all our prayers?  God is in control, right?

David struggles through all these issues in the Psalms.  He was very familiar with these questions and doesn't appear to be shy about voicing his concerns to God.

Psalm 10:12-18 reads, "Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.  Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, You will not call to account?  But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.  Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none.  The Lord is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land.  O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more."

What I learn from David here is that God is on the side of justice.  He is on the side of the oppressed.  He is on the side that exalts His name!  We can pray for certain things confidently, knowing His will.  So if you are down today, if you are wondering, if you are discouraged, pray for Him to hold the wicked accountable and pray for Him to remember the afflicted.