“You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped.” (Jer 20:7)
Have you ever prayed this prayer?
I have.
Following God, being a disciple of Christ, praying, it all starts out pretty simply. In many cases, it starts easily even. But then, one day, it isn’t simple or easy or even challenging: One day, to us, continuing on seems nearly impossible. It’s like God has left, and now He seems to have sent the universe after us. That is where we find Jeremiah today.
Why does God do this? He is teaching us that nothing in this world will fulfill us but himself. He is teaching us to detach ourselves and not to conform ourselves to this age, to this world, but to Him. By following Him, even in this darkness, by seeking Him who is good, pleasing, and perfect, we learn to take up our cross.
God teaches through the cross. He calls us to be crucified with Christ. In Galatians and Romans, St. Paul speaks of this, saying our vices and impulses, our sinfulness, is crucified with us. But we are also called to rise again with Christ, to come down from the Cross and live, leaving vice and sin nailed to the Cross as we live in freedom.
God teaches us this way so we can truly be free. But there is another thing to notice in Jeremiah’s prayer. The word is a fire in Jeremiah’s heart, yearning to be spoken. The truth is that God never left, he just went deeper. This is what happens: God draws us to Him, and then continually moves deeper into us. It seems like he tricked us and left, but he never leaves. Instead, He works to set us on fire with His love, so that He might burst forth from us too.
Then, we will realize something amazing: God has called us to do His work of recreating the world, because as He bursts forth from our hearts, now on fire. He - through us - draws new children to himself, inviting them to the same freedom and call to eternal joy.
So yeah. We were duped. Because NONE of us expects the great glory in store for us: that God has made us his coworkers in the salvation of humanity.