Loving where God has placed you

Every morning around 5ish or so, I get an absolutely gorgeous view from my apartment window. I can see the sun setting over the city, and the buildings get all orangey red and absolutely beautiful. It really makes me love Philadelphia. Today in my bible study, we started talking about how we can serve the places we're from and stumbled upon this verse:

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” - Jeremiah 29: 4-7

Often I see my life in Philadelphia as temporary - yes, God has placed me here for school, but I don't feel like I necessarily need to put roots down because I could just end up somewhere else. I really like how these verses encourage us to settle down in the places God has placed us and to seek the good of the place He has brought us to. I think this is especially hard to do when we don't understand why God has placed us where He has at the time in our lives - be it far from our friends, family, or other opportunities we desire. These verses come right before the famous:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29: 11-14

I certainly don't always feel like I am in "captivity" in the places where God puts me, but often times I can feel uncomfortable and question God's judgement. It's really important to remember that God has placed us where He has a plan for us and that He is never far from us wherever He has placed us. My challenge for myself for this new year is to find ways that I can actively love my city more - through prayer and action. I'm still brainstorming on what exactly that means, but I hope that as we continue on this journey to love God more, we can come up with some really good ways to do this together!