The Old Testament reading from the daily office for today is Jeremiah 35 :1-19. It is an interesting vignette deposited in the midst of troubling times for Judah. It is the story of a family who remained faithful to an ancestor's commitment, and because of oppression from foreign forces found themselves in Jerusalem. God, through Jeremiah, uses them as an object lesson for Judah and Jerusalem. It appears that God sometimes ordains for our lives to be instructional for other people, and this may involve our own deprivation or relinquishing of personal desires. I have to hope that somehow in the mystery of what has become our lives, God is using us for an unseen purpose, maybe even as instruction to other souls.