Rewriting the Past on Purpose

As believers, we have God's promise in Proverbs 4:18, that "The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day." (ESV)

The normal Christian life is one that grows better and better.  As we allow God to have His way in us, our perspective gets brighter, our faith grows, the old sins that used to trip us up fall off, and the things which seemed so difficult to forgive when we were young pale in comparison to the knowledge of our own depravity and how much we've been forgiven.

Lately, I've been looking back at some once painful memories, but with new eyes and a wiser perspective.  It's not been a deliberate choice----it's been more of a God journey, because He wants me to see things back there that I didn't see at the time.

And I am realizing that in some cases, the stuff I was carrying at the time, kept me from having His perspective on those moments.  So, here's a recent example.  One of the things which has kept me from aspects of my destiny is my tendency to "dabble."  I enjoy serving, but I get bored easily.  So, I jump around a lot.  I'm lucky enough to have a number of friends who speak into my life, and one of them took me aside at one point and pointed out, how this tendency was hurting me.  But at the time?  Rather than hearing the heart of my friend to help?  All I could hear was judgment.  I judged their advice to be short-sighted, and trying to force my personality into a mold that only some fit.

Yesterday a different friend said the same thing to me but in a slightly different way. It wasn't about restricting freedom, it wasn't about not allowing me to be me.  It was that longevity in a post gives one a platform.  The lightbulb clicked on, and in my spirit I was like, "Ohhhhhhhhhh." Had I listened the first time, perhaps I'd be further down the road than I am now.  

This kind of thing is happening a lot these days, and I find God to be not only the author of my story, but also the Editor.  He is doing what I could never do on my own----rewriting history, changing my memories, producing a new script for events which have already occurred.  

I'm not suggesting we should live in the past, or analyze every situation that ever caused us pain.  

The real lesson I feel He is teaching me thru this is to be more open to the possibility of being wrong in the moment.  To hold my opinions gently, and to trust those He has put in my life.  To recognize His voice when He speaks thru others and to heed it the first time around, so precious life isn't poured out upon an altar of stubbornness and pride and self-preservation.

I'm learning to let my Father rewrite my past on purpose, and to trust Him to author my story in part by using ghostwriters He employs.  

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Photo credit:  Fabien Barral on Unsplash.

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We are the Church

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There are 2 words which disturb me deeply, because they contradict scripture, and yet have been accepted by most Christians as true.  Those 2 words are sociopath and psychopath.

Both disorders are characterized in part, by psychologists, as being individuals who are unable to empathize or show remorse.

The problem is, the Bible does not agree with these descriptions.  In Ecclesiastes 3:11, we learn that God has "set eternity" in the hearts of men.  We know from 1 Timothy 2:4 that God desires for all men to come to a knowledge of the truth.  This would not be possible if there were those born without a conscience.  (Apostasy is acknowledged in scripture.  However, apostasy comes AFTER one has known and had relationship with God.)

Sometimes, as believers we forget our charge to discern truth.  As society around us grows darker and darker, what seemed bad 20 years ago, doesn't seem so bad anymore.  If we hear things often enough, we begin to assimilate them into our world view, without checking them against scripture.

As salt and light in the world, we cannot afford to abdicate our responsibility to exercise discernment.  If we do, we lose what sets us apart and makes us the hope of the world.  

It always surprises me when I hear of Christians being sent to secular counselors and therapy groups.  Though psychology has things to contribute to our lives, and Christian therapists and authors such as John Townsend and Henry Cloud have contributed much to our understanding of the soul, the church IS the hope of the world.  It IS the vehicle God designed to effect change in the earth.  The Bible HAS the answers we seek.  A pastor familiar with the word always trumps an unbeliever with familiarity with textbooks, following the world's system.  

(I'm not judging individual believers who seek secular counseling.  I've been to secular counselors myself.)  But the counsel I've received from my pastors, has been 200 percent better than anything the world has offered.  

This isn't a post about psychology.  It's a post about discerning between dark and light, evil and good.  About not swallowing every idea that the world puts forth as truth.  It's about judging all things by the Word, and calling good those things God calls good, and rejecting what God rejects.

We are the church.  We are the hope of the world.  We are light, we are salt.  We must maintain the difference which sets us apart, if we are to accomplish the mission Jesus saved us for.