For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. — Jeremiah 29:11
Years ago, while working as a paramedic, I responded to a call and met a man who was homeless.
His condition was not an emergency, but he needed to be evaluated at the hospital. As we made our way there, he began to talk. He told me about his life — a good job, a wonderful family, a life that by most measures would have been considered successful. He had built something real. And then, piece by piece, it had come apart. He had ended up in a place he never could have imagined for himself.
I have never forgotten that conversation. Not because his story was unusual, but because of the quiet disbelief still in his voice. He was not where he thought he would be. Not even close.
Most of us know the feeling, even if our circumstances look different.
Jeremiah 29:11 is one of the most recognized verses in all of Scripture. It appears on graduation cards and coffee mugs and wall art in living rooms across the world. And the truth it contains is genuine. But what is almost never mentioned is the context in which it was written — and that context changes everything.
These words were written to the people of Israel while they were in Babylonian captivity. They had been torn from their homes and carried into a foreign land against their will. They were living in a place they never chose, under circumstances they never wanted, in a season that would last far longer than anyone hoped. God’s instruction to them was not to hold their breath and wait for immediate rescue. He told them to build houses. Plant gardens. Raise families. Settle in. Because they were going to be there for seventy years.
And it is to those people, in that place, that God says — I know the thoughts I think toward you. Thoughts of peace. Not of evil. To give you an expected end.
He is not speaking to people whose lives are unfolding exactly as planned. He is speaking to people whose lives look nothing like what they imagined. And He is telling them that His intentions toward them have not changed simply because their circumstances have.
That is the part the coffee mug leaves out.
God’s good plan does not always arrive in comfortable packaging. Sometimes it unfolds in a season we never asked for. In a place we never wanted to be. Through circumstances that feel more like captivity than blessing. And yet His thoughts toward us remain thoughts of peace. His purposes remain intact even when our plans have fallen apart.
The man in that ambulance could not see what God might still have for him. And there are moments in all of our lives when we cannot see it either. The road looks wrong. The season has lasted too long. The life we imagined and the life we are living barely resemble each other.
But God has not lost track of you in the detour. His thoughts toward you have not changed with your circumstances. The expected end He has planned is still ahead — even when you cannot yet see it from where you are standing.
Trust the One who knows the plans. Even here. Even now.
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About Another Well Ministries
Another Well Ministries exists to help people slow down, listen deeply, and encounter God in the ordinary places of life. Through devotionals, reflections, and spiritual resources, we seek to create space for faith to be formed with honesty, grace, and hope.
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