1 Peter 1:1-2

From Peter the Disciple.

To the exiles.

Exiles are the ones who are not at home. Maybe you’ve moved to a new city. Or you’re finding yourself distanced from a group of friends you were once close to. Maybe you’re growing up, and you cannot be the same as the child you used to be. Maybe you’re caged by anxiety, and you don’t feel free to let your real feelings show at your work or at school or at home.

Your exile doesn’t feel right. It shouldn’t be this way. People need connection. They need homes and families. And families should be places where everyone can be themselves and show their true feelings and experience acceptance. And yet here you are.

But your exile was not a surprise. You are an elect exile. You were known by God from the beginning. You were made by him and chosen by him. And he knew that one day, for a while, you would be scattered, driven out, and alone. 

He uses your exile. He takes the pain and the struggle, the feelings of isolation, and he uses them to purify you, to turn your heart more towards him. His Spirit is in you, constantly doing his good work to mold you into the person he sees that you really are. 

And in your suffering, you follow in the steps of your Lord and teacher, Jesus Christ. He was an exile too. He left his home with the Father and came down to a foreign land full of broken people. He did not experience acceptance from them but rejection and isolation. He embraced that isolation to the fullest, letting himself be cut off even from the Father so that his blood would cover us all for forgiveness and for cleansing. And he called to each one of you and said, “Follow me.” So you follow him. 

And as you follow, sometimes you stumble and fall short. You make mistakes, as we all do. Small mistakes. Big mistakes. So may grace multiply over your failures so that like a four year old learning to roller skate you can crash to the ground in the middle of safe hands waiting to catch you, hug you, and pick you back up again. And may peace compound so that even in your anxiety and fear you can be content each moment with just the way that you are and just the way that you feel and with everything that you’ve done and haven’t done, because your Father is content with you, and more than content, but overflowing with love.

1 Peter 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.