This week we carry on our encounter with the prophet Jeremiah, and the readings are Jeremiah 2:4-13 and Luke 14:1,7-14.

Last week we overheard God calling Jeremiah into his prophetic ministry; this week we hear him stepping up and getting on with the job.  Slowly Jeremiah builds a case against the people of Israel, explaining, and showing, how they have walked away from the God of their ancestors, and replaced him, if they've bothered with anything spiritual at all, with the gods of nations round about.   They have gone after 'things that do not profit'.

The reading ends with the image of a people turning their back on a fountain of living water, which requires no effort to drink from, to instead break their backs trying to fill cracked cisterns, which no amount of work will make ready to slake their thirst.  It's an absurd image, and it's meant to be - it's confronting the people with their foolishness.  Here, says Jeremiah, is your good and loving God, who has known you since forever, and cared for you, and longs to shower good gifts upon you, and create in you the fulness of all you can be to bless the world around... and instead of taking him up on the offer (which costs nothing by the way), you're spending an awful lot of time and energy trying to get the things he's offering for free at immense personal cost, not only to yourselves, but to everyone one around you...

Which I guess brings us to face the question ourselves - what is it we want out of life, and how are we spending our time and energy seeking it out?  What things, or people, are we trusting ourselves to to find our self, and our purpose?  And can they deliver?  Are we trying to fill our own cracked pots with transient praise and pleasures that trickle away before they've even wet the sides?  Or are we open to the life-affirming, life-enriching, living water that is our God?

Pause for Prayer:  Spend some time with the question, "Who am I?"  For each answer you find, ask yourself, "Who says so?" or "How do I know?"  See if any answers emerge that you can recognise as from God - do they feel or seem different any of the others?  Ask Him to show you who you are when your identity is grounded in Him. 
(As ever, if anything comes up that doesn't feel right, or makes you uncomfortable or uneasy, do seek someone you trust to talk things through.)