A Tale of 3 Cities, #2a: Jefferson Revisited

I previously wrote about Jefferson, Texas, as a town of people who thought riverboats would always keep them prosperous. They could not see the world changing, and they got left behind. Yet their story deserves a Part Two—and so might yours.
 
When the 150-mile-long log jam, “The Great Raft,” was cleared downstream, the Red River water levels upstream, where Jefferson was, fell too low for riverboats to navigate. Finally they saw the need to adapt to the new development of railroads. But it was too late; they had previously turned down the offer of being a railroad center, and the railroads went through the growing town of Dallas.
 
Jefferson’s economy plummeted. Bankruptcies multiplied. The population fell more than fifty percent, and it slowly continued to further decline. Oil was discovered not far away, but not close enough. Once the sixth-largest town in all Texas, Jefferson was now depopulated and desperately poor, more-or-less a dead town.

Maybe you have felt your life, or someone you know has felt their life, has been like that.
 
Then in 1971 the passage of time gave Jefferson survivors a gift. The US government, in an unprecedented move, placed an entire forty-seven-block area containing fifty-six historic buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. After all its defeat and struggle, Jefferson was reborn with a new identity. The town never became a metropolis like Dallas-Fort Worth–it no longer wants to be–but it is now a highly preserved historic wonder, visited and loved by multitudes of tourists year round, who have made it once again prosperous.
 
How might this kind of story play out in your life? Or in the life of someone you know?
 
What major losses have you suffered? What big mistakes do you regret?
How have you groaned and struggled, maybe for years?
 
Here is a promise from 1 Peter 5:10, “The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”
 
How has your life been redeemed? How has it been reinvented?
 
Think of the ways God has given you the grace to overcome deep discouragement, defeat, or challenges. Like Jefferson, you come out differently—and better—than before.
 
And if you’re in a downturn right now, what will you believe God for and patiently work toward? Remember God’s promise.

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Photo credit:  www.trip101.com