We acknowledge our wickedness, LORD, and the guilt of our ancestors; we have indeed sinned against you. – Jeremiah 14:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 22, 2014): Jeremiah 14

There is maybe no sadder moment than realizing that you are too late. You could have changed the destination, but you didn’t. You could have changed a life, but you decided not to bother. Too often, our health suffers from the too late syndrome. We forget that we are stewards of something – until it is too late. We plan to make changes to our health routine, but wait too long. Financially, we plan to save for retirement, but we wait until retirement has almost arrived before we really start to save. Our reality is that we have let all of that potential simply slip through our fingers. Potential that is never taken advantage of is the tragic story that is above all other tragedies. It is the story of too late.

Jeremiah is just coming to this realization in regard to Judah. It is too late for the nation to repent. The moment of grace that Judah has been enjoying up until this point is about to pass, and there is nothing that Jeremiah can do about it. If only the nation had come to a point of repentance before now – had been willing to accept their own culpability in all that was happening. But they hadn’t – and now it is too late.

The reality is that while as Jeremiah writes these words using the idea of the nation praying to God, there is almost no evidence of any kind of a national revival taking place during the days of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is begging for God to change his mind, but Judah has consistently refused to change theirs. They are still content to chase after their idols and continue in their sins. No amount of pleading on the part of Jeremiah has changed anything. Judah persists in her sins while Jeremiah begs God for forgiveness. The needed change never came.

Too often we plan to change, but we never really do. And so we live through the tragedy of being too late. Reality does not have to be the way it is, but we don’t have the courage to change it until it is too late. But by that time reality is fixed – and the tragedy of too late has arrived on our doorstep.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 15