The book of Jeremiah opens with a recollection of the moment of his call. He has a reluctant conversation with God much like a teenager with a parent. God says to him, “Do not say, “”I am a youth””. In effect, God tells him that what appears to be a fact is, in fact, not a fact. Ultimately God’s eyes see differently and, safe to say, with far more accuracy. God’s view and vision is about as foreign to us as a bikini in Baghdad and often far more shocking. Psalm 32 features a verse in which God declares, “I will guide you with my eye.” No wonder so much of His leading makes so little sense. As believers, we humbly succumb to be led by his sight and thus begin a journey that boldly goes beyond the boundaries of normative thought, ideas, and action. Jeremiah, though told in chapter 1 that he has power to overthrow kings and kingdoms, never gets the chance. The power that God places in him never seems to get fully unleashed on the world. But it’s unleashed in Jeremiah for his heart turns out to be the very kingdom that God wants to conquer the most. So this man of power, pride, and priestly position turns into the “weeping prophet”. I often think of the self esteem style teaching regarding the spiritual authority that has been placed in our lives to subdue and conquer kingdoms and yet we ourselves remain lawless and without restraint. After reading Jeremiah I’ve come to the conclusion that God is far more interested in taking the time to subdue the kingdom of a single man’s heart than to merely use him to subdue what our eyes see as kingdoms. In fact those are kingdoms made by men and, as the Scriptures say, are as dust before Him. It makes sense that the Creator is far more concerned with His creation itself than what His creation has created. Like a child who comes home from school with a crudely beautiful sculpture of popsicle sticks and macaroni and the parent admires it but only because his child has created it. The artwork is destined for the trash can but for now it hangs in a place of prominence. The kingdoms of this world seem so prominent, but in God’s eyes they are as solid as popsicle sticks and macaroni. Our destiny, however, is that the power of the Spirit within us will eventually bring us to a place of obedient submission to His perfect will and we will be conformed into the image of Christ. That’s a fact.