“For I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances.”
“我已學會知足常樂，無論身處何境。” 

Community — Have you ever been somewhere you didn't want to be? Maybe it was a job, 
a town, or a marriage. Maybe it was a stage in life, like singlehood, or a state in life, like a 
disability. It's very possible that as you read this, you're wishing you were somewhere else–
anywhere else–living a different life, but you know it's not likely that anything is going to 
change any time soon.

社會— 你試過處于一個你不願意呆的境遇嗎？也許是一份工作，一個城市，或一段婚姻，又或者是人生的某階段，比如單身的
日子；甚至是一種狀態，比如殘廢。也許就在你讀這段文字的時候，正希望著自己能換其他環境，任何環境都好，只要不同于現
在。但你知道任何事物在任何時候都不太可能立即發生的改變。

God has a word for you. It's the same word he gave a group of people when they were stuck 
in another country, exiled from their homeland. They'd folded their arms and said, “We're 
going to wait this thing out, and when we get home, we'll start living our lives.”Through the 
prophet Jeremiah, God told them, “You’re not going home any time soon, so start making
 your lives here. Plant gardens, buy homes, let your children get married, and pray for the 
peace and prosperity of the place where you're currently living because, by doing that, you
 too will be blessed with peace and prosperity.”

上帝對你，就象他對其他所有離家背井來到異國他鄉人們一樣。他們禱告：“我們會等待這些結束，當我們回到家鄉，將會開
始真正的生活”。通過預言家Jeremiah，上帝告訴他們：“你們不可能隨時馬上回家，所以就在這裏開始真正的生活吧！種花，
買房，讓兒女嫁娶，並祈禱你所在之處的和平和繁榮。因為這樣做，你也同樣被平安和好運所保佑了。”

To use a modern cliché, God was saying, “Bloom where you're planted.”

一句諺語，上帝告訴我們：“種在哪裏，就在那裏開花。”

Don't invest your energy in hopes of leaving; instead invest your energy in the people around 
you. The Christian martyr Jim Eliot expressed it this way: “Wherever you are, be all there.” 
Don't be physically present but mentally somewhere else, thinking of the future or the past, 
thinking of someplace else. Our journey with Christ requires that we be fully present in the 
present.

不要把精力用在怎樣離開上，應把注意轉移到正在你身邊陪著你的這個人身上，為基督殉道的Jim Eliot以這種方式來描述：“無
論你在哪，全身心地在那。”不要再心不在焉，意想著未來或者懷念著過去，牽挂著別處。一心一意地面對此時此地的旅程耶稣
將與我們同在。


------------------------------------Jon Walker