This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. -Jeremiah 31:33
Dear members and friends,
Have you ever wondered, “when am I going to be able to make that change?” All guide books about spiritual cultivation and self-improvement point to one simple truth: the change must happen within oneself and by oneself. In other words, if you want to become a better person than who you are right now or make a significant change in how you live your life, the change must be initiated and executed by you. The question is always “how?” But finding an answer is almost impossible simply because it is precisely the thing that you must find by yourself. There are two reason for this: 1. You are the only human being in the universe who could know the deepest secrets about yourself; 2. Unless you find the answer by yourself, your mind might actively seek a justifiable way to avoid or alter any answer that is given to you.
The first time I read Jeremiah 31:33, I thought to myself, “Wow, this is great. One day God will just write the divine law in my heart! I cannot wait for that to be real.” Then I waited. And waited. But nothing happened in my heart! I was exactly the same as the day before, the year before, and even the decade before. There is something very important and significant about Jeremiah 31:33 that I totally ignored the first time I read it. It was this phrase, “after those days.” “Those days” includes a great deal of experiences, especially the stage of losing it all, acknowledging the importance of what was lost, and desiring and praying to gain it back. The emphasis here is not that you have to lose it all in order to gain it back, but that you have to truly know and acknowledge the value and importance of what you have and what you could accomplish with it, whatever “it” may be. In other words, the divine law can only be written in our hearts when we truly know and acknowledge its meaning and value, and thus we are willing to live accordingly. Perhaps, this is why Jesus said, “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me (Revelation 3:20).”
Blessings, Rev. Junchol Lee