If I could tell you anything right now about what we are to do with the days we are given, it would be this:

Dwell fully in the land and work for its thriving.

For those of you who embrace Christianity for all its worth, you’ll find these words in Jeremiah 29, just before the words everyone loves to claim about God promising a world saturated in hope.

“This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, to all the exiles I’ve taken from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and make yourselves at home. Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country. Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you’ll thrive in that country and not waste away. Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare. Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for…