Tag Archives: Past

Chapter-a-Day

Inspired by the Past

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Inspired by the Past (1 Chr 22) – Wayfarer

“Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the Lord God…”
1 Chronicles 22:19a (NIV)

As a baseball fan, I have been enjoying the outpouring of honor for Willie Mays the past few days. Not only was Mays possibly the greatest all-around player ever, but he is among the last players who transitioned from the Negro Leagues to the Major Leagues after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. He is one of the greats.

“We were playing for generations of players who were held back. We had a lot to play for, not just [for] us,” Mays told John Shea, co-author of Mays’ memoir 24.

One of the things that I love about history is its power to inspire, and there is plenty of inspiration in a man like Mays who was not only a great ball player, but a stellar human being who helped move history forward out of the sickness of segregation.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post/podcast, we have entered a new phase of 1 Chronicles. Once again, I found it important this morning to place myself in the sandals of the Chronicler and the people to whom he is writing his history of King David and the Kingdom of Israel. His generation has returned to the rubble of Jerusalem left by the Babylonian army almost a century before. Their generation has been given the monumental task of turning the debris into a new Temple.

How does he inspire them? With the history of their larger-than-life hero King David. King David’s greatest desire was to build the temple, but God made it clear that it would be his son, Solomon, who would do the job. So, David made all of the preparations he could, and in today’s chapter, he passes the responsibility to his son with history’s version of an inspirational locker room speech.

I think it’s important to note that all of these details are not found in the earlier historical account in Samuel. This is the Chronicler’s unique addition to the story. When he writes of David urging his son to succeed in completing his life’s greatest ambition he knows that he is writing to the “sons of David” who have the same task before them hundreds of years later. He is using history to inspire.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that everyone has a natural bent with regard to time. My bent is to look to the past for its lessons and inspiration. Wendy’s bent, on the other hand, is to always be looking to the future so that she can plan and execute that plan well. Still, others have a bent to living in the moment and focus on the present realities. There is no right or wrong. It’s not an either-or, but a yes-and. I have learned along the journey that we all need to learn from and appreciate those who have a different bent. And from time to time everyone needs the pasto to inspire us. The Chronicler certainly understood this.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Faith-full Reminders

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Faith-Full Reminders (CaD 1 Chr 16) – Wayfarer

When they were but few in number,
    few indeed, and strangers in it,
they wandered from nation to nation,
    from one kingdom to another.
He allowed no one to oppress them;
    for their sake he rebuked kings:
“Do not touch my anointed ones;
    do my prophets no harm.”
1 Chronicles 16:19-22 (NIV)

Like everyone else in life, Wendy and I have experienced times of uncertainty. In fact, just a few weeks ago we were taking stock of some current circumstances in which we’re having to trust that God has a plan and is going to provide. Feeling my tendency to spiral into pessimism, Wendy sat and recounted for me all of the times over our nearly 20 years together when God has proven faithful in having a plan and providing. I needed to hear it. It was good.

Today’s chapter provides Part 2 of David’s grand event marking the Ark of the Covenant’s unveiling in its new tent temple in Jerusalem. Once again, the Chronicler reveals that David broke down the royal and priestly silos as he led in making the sacrifices and offerings. David then appoints musicians to play worship music and instructs them how he wants it done, using his own Psalms. With these events, not recorded in the original account in Samuel, the Chronicler reminds us that the warrior king was also the worship king who composed much of the book of Psalms and began his career as his predecessor’s private musician.

The lyrics the Chronicler quotes from the event can be found in three Psalms (105, 106, 96), but to understand why these additions are so important for the Chronicler and his contemporary readers, I have to place myself in their shoes on the timeline.

The people have just returned from decades of exile in Babylon. Reconstructing the Temple from the rubble, the Chronicler and his generation are going to have to do the very same things David did. Levites will have to be appointed as caretakers and musicians. Instructions will have to be given. They are restoring God’s sacrificial system as prescribed in the Law of Moses, just as David did.

The lyrics David prescribes at the event describe God’s covenant with Abraham, God’s promise to bless “a thousand generations,” and God’s faithfulness to the Hebrews who “wandered from nation to nation as strangers” before settling into the Promised Land. If I’m an exile having just moved back to Jerusalem from Babylon, this describes my own personal experience. I know what it’s like to live as a stranger in a strange land. I have had to cling to my faith in God and trust His promises, His covenant, and His faithfulness. Now I’m back in Jerusalem restoring the Temple and experiencing God’s faithfulness. What David is doing in today’s chapter and what David is singing in today’s chapter resonates deeply with my own life and experience. It’s life repeating itself. And through all of the uncertainty I’ve felt as an exile and now as a people trying to reconstruct our lives, our legacy, and. our identity as God’s people, I need to be reminded of God’s faithfulness. I need to trust that He has a plan and will provide. I can imagine reading today’s chapter and finding my soul saying: “I needed this. This is good.”

In the quiet this morning, I return from standing in the sandals of a returned Hebrew exile in 400 B.C. Jerusalem to sitting here in my 21st-century office. One thing that hasn’t changed in 2500 years is the human condition. Life is filled with uncertainty. I need reminding that God has a plan and will provide. Holy Spirit brought to mind a little verse, not particularly well-known, that has become a staple go-to along my own personal journey:

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.”
2 Timothy 2:13

I spent some time in the quiet this morning meditating on God’s faithfulness to the ancient Hebrews through the generations. I recounted some of those reminders Wendy gave me a few weeks ago of the many ways God has proven the truth of 2 Timothy 2:13 and the many times He’s proven faithful in having a plan and providing.

I needed this. This is good.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Warriors

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The Warriors (CaD 1 Chr 12) – Wayfarer

Day after day men came to help David, until he had a great army, like the army of God.
1 Chronicles 12:22 (NIV)

Today is June 6, 2024. Eighty years ago today the Allied nations launched the greatest military assault in human history. Crossing the English Channel and landing on the beaches of Normandy, the tide of World War II had shifted. Hitler’s days of conquest to rule the rule the world and create “the master race” were effectively over. It was the Allies who now pursued conquest in order to eliminate the threat of Nazi tyranny.

Generally speaking, human history is a never-ending series of conquests. Whoever had the bigger, better, and more equipped army conquered greater territories and prevailed until a bigger, better, and more equipped army came along. And, history proves that, at some point, one always seems to eventually come along.

One of the reasons that David was viewed as the greatest king of Israel was because he was a successful warrior and a successful leader of warriors. For over a decade, David lived as a young fugitive in the desert, hiding from Mad King Saul. During that period of time, he became a legend in an almost Robin Hood-like fashion. It started as a rag-tag group of mercenaries, outcasts, and misfits who hailed from a wide variety of backgrounds. As tales of the desert warrior spread along with word of his exploits, more and more men sought David out and joined his burgeoning personal army.

By the time David becomes king, he already has a large, well-trained and experienced army who were personally loyal to him. His army were men from every tribe and virtually every local nation. David succeeded in earning their loyalty. As king, David and his personal army were uniquely prepared to conquer neighboring nations and expand his nation’s power and wealth. Bolstered by the addition of the national army that had been previously loyal to Saul, David was geared to rise to prominence.

In today’s chapter, the Chronicler continues to wax eloquent on the greatness of David’s army and his military leadership. History goes to the conquerors. One again, for the Chronicler and the conquered and defeated people returning from exile, the memory of a once great warrior-king who conquered the region and led an army “like the army of God” would have been inspiring to a people trying to reclaim their identity within the larger Persian Empire.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking of the men that I knew who participated in battles to liberate Europe. One was a high school teacher, bound to a wheelchair, who one day reluctantly shared his experiences of storming the beach at Normandy and taking out a German pill-box on D-Day. Another was a retired postman who always had a smiling and pleasant disposition and rarely said a single word. He was among the few pilots to survive 25 bombing missions over Germany and earn a ticket home. A third was a Tuskegee Airman who survived the battle of racial prejudice as well as the war over Europe. He returned to become an educator in Iowa and was kind enough to share with me his story over pints at the Pensacola Naval Air Station.

How different life would be had these men not made the sacrifice to serve along with the thousands who didn’t live to tell their tales. I found it interesting how the Chronicler mythologized David’s warriors. As I noted yesterday, we like to glorify our past and make heroes of our warriors. I consider them heroes. But I have found, however, that these warriors I described were each reluctant to share their stories. The “glorification” was something they eschewed. I could feel the unspoken pain of the horrors they’d witnessed. I sensed the survivor’s guilt that comes with the memory of all the faces and names of friends who died fighting next to them. There was a common humility these men had in trying to diminish the glorification and honor the terror of being one lucky S.O.B who made it when so many laid down their lives.

While in college, I was asked to give a speech at a Veteran’s Day parade. As I rode to the parade grounds with a bus full of mostly World War II veterans, I noticed that the Veteran sitting across from me was staring out the window, a glazed expression on his face as was lost what I can only guess was a bitter memory. As I watched, tears began streaming out of his eyes and down his ruddy, wrinkled face. I almost felt ashamed to be there watching. It was a holy moment. It was qadosh.

He caught me looking at him.

Tears still streaming down his face, he said, “Never get in another war. Never.”

If only history in the fallen world east of Eden was as simple as willing it to be the way we’d like it to be.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Glory Days

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Glory Days (CaD 1 Chr 11) – Wayfarer

When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, he made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel, as the Lord had promised through Samuel.
1 Chronicles 11:3 (NIV)

In a few weeks, I will attend my 40th high school class reunion. I graduated in 1984. I came of age in the Reagan years. I entered high school the year Reagan took office and finished college the same year Reagan completed his second term.

It’s common for people to look back at their high school and college years as the “Glory Days” of life. Bruce Springsteen even wrote a song about it. I do find it humorous to think back about what life was like in those days. I get a lot of memes in my social media feed about growing up in the 1970s and 1980s and they always make me laugh. Life has certainly changed a lot in 40 years.

In today’s chapter, the Chronicler begins his description of the reign of King David. With both his words and his choice of details, he paints a “Glory Days” picture of Israel’s great King.

Twice in the first three verses of the chapter, the Chronicler chooses to say that “all” of the people and elders asked David to be their king. He then chronicles the capture of Jerusalem and David making it his capital city. The Chronicler then highlights David’s “mighty warriors” including the trio of nearly comic book-worthy heroes known as “The Three.”

Unity, power, and strength are the themes the Chronicler establishes immediately in his Cliff Notes condensed version of events. While it is true that his contemporary readers knew the more detailed accounts of Samuel version of history it is worth noting that the Chronicler chooses not to deal with the fact that David was named King of Judah years before the rest of the tribes asked him to be king over them. David united the tribes into one Kingdom, but history has taught me that no leader has 100 percent support. Even Walter Mondale took two states in 1984.

It’s also fascinating that the Chronicler puts David’s “Mighty Men” right up front in the narrative, while the author of Samuel placed it near the end almost as an appendix to David’s story. Again, there is a bit of glorification being presented in the Chronicler’s retelling.

Yet in the quiet this morning I can’t help but once again think about the Chronicler’s place in history. His generation was born and raised in exile. He’s known nothing but subservience to foreign empires. Now, he’s returned to Jerusalem which lay in rubble to rebuild a Temple that was also burned and turned into rubble. Our of the realities of defeat, destruction, exile, and subservience he is trying to find a way to rally his people to put their faith in God and have some pride in their national identity. So, he’s focusing on the unity, power, and strength that their great King David had back in the glory days.

And, I get it. It’s human nature to glorify our past. I certainly wouldn’t mind if Ronald Reagan was on the ballot this November.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Three Things in Misery

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Three Things in Misery (CaD Mi 7) – Wayfarer

“What misery is mine!”
Micah 7:1a (NIV)

May I be honest with you? The past couple of days have been miserable. Like, they’ve been really miserable. I’ll spare you the details. My point is not about sharing my misery, but about how God met me in today’s chapter.

As I have always said, prophesy is layered with meaning. As I wrote in my post last week, the ancient’s prophetic words can at once be about what was, what is, and what yet will be. The ancient prophet Micah’s words in today’s final chapter are certainly about the spiritual, social, and political issues that were happening back in his day. But on a morning when I am acutely feeling misery in the moment and the first words I read are “What misery is mine!” I know there’s something that God’s Spirit has to say to me, today, in this miserable moment.

The first thing God had for me was an empathetic identification of my present reality.

“Now is the time of your confusion.
Do not trust a neighbor;
Put no confidence in a friend.
Even with the woman who lies in your embrace
Guard the words of your lips.”

I am feeling confused. I am feeling distrustful. I am feeling caution with every word I say. Reading these words was God’s Spirit whispering, “I get it.” I needed that.

The second thing God had for me in today’s chapter was a statement of both faith and hope.

“But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD.
I wait for God my Savior;
my God will hear me.”

As I read these words, it felt like a guttural cry of my soul. They became a defiant stance, amidst my present circumstances, in faith that I can trust God and trust the story He is authoring in and through me.

The third thing God had for me was a promise.

“The day for building your walls will come,
the day for extending your boundaries.”

Sometimes, it’s good to be given a glimpse of what’s ahead. I may find myself in a deep valley on life’s road, but there are good things ahead just over the next hill.

So today, I’ll just press forward one step at a time.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Nostalgia

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Nostalgia (CaD Job 29) – Wayfarer

“Oh, for the days when I was in my prime,
    when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house,
when the Almighty was still with me
    and my children were around me…”
Job 29:4-5 (NIV)

Over the past year or two, Wendy and I have been observing and discussing how the two of us think differently about time. As an Enneagram Eight, Wendy is future oriented. She is always thinking about what is ahead and what needs to be done to ensure that everything runs smoothly once we get there. As an Enneagram Four, I have a past orientation. I’m a lover of history and I’ve always had a freakish kind of memory. To this I can pull up a photo of my first grade class and tell you the name of pretty much every classmate. I could also point out the house where about half of them lived.

So, yesterday while grocery shopping Wendy asked me if we had a bottle of cranberry juice left on the shelf of the pantry because I had just opened a new bottle from the pantry the day before. In Wendy’s future orientation one should naturally make note of these things so that when we’re at the store we can get one, if needed, to make sure there’s at lest one on the shelf at all times for that morning when we run out at breakfast. I think there was one more on the pantry shelf when I opened a new bottle the day before. I think there was. I don’t know. But, I distinctly remember when I was five and we had this corner cupboard with a lazy susan, and things would fall off in the back of the cupboard and because I was the smallest my. mom would have me crawl onto the lazy susan and she’d spin me around to retrieve the fallen cans from the bottom of the cupboard in the back. That, I remember.

Herein lies the issue.

For that past twenty-some chapters, the ever-suffering Job has been sitting on his local refuse burn pile telling his three amigos that he would like to have his day in court with God. He’d like to put God on the witness stand and cross-examine the Almighty because Job is convinced that he has been wronged and God is the perpetrator. With today’s chapter, we enter a new phase of the Job story. Starting today, and with the following two chapters, Job makes his closing arguments in the metaphorical trial he’s been living out inside his head and heart.

Like a defense attorney speaking to me, his audience and jury, Job begins with a trip down Memory Lane. He waxes nostalgic of the days before that day when a rogue derecho killed all of his children and, simultaneously, some neighborhood gangs stole all of his flocks and fortune. He’s pulling the heart-strings of this past-oriented jury member. I feel it, Job. Oh how good life was, back in the day when I rode my Schwinn five-speed Stingray to the 7-Eleven on Douglas Avenue. It was a half-block east on Madison, hang a right and head south on 31st street, then just three blocks past the Cron’s house to Douglas. The 7-Eleven was on the northwest corner. It used to be a DX station. I’d fill up the Briggs and Stratton push mower. Gas was about 25 cents a gallon. But the DX closed and it became a 7-Eleven where almost every day in the summer I bought a Big Gulp for a quarter that I’d probably earned doing Scott Borg’s paper route at the VA hospital that morning.

Oh…I’m sorry…we were talking about Job, weren’t we?

Along my life journey, I’ve observed that it’s easy to glorify the past, especially for those of us who have a natural bent toward nostalgia. When life gets complicated, when I’m suffering in the present and find it difficult to see any hope for the future, I can reach back to the past like a drug. It provides cherished memories and drums up nostalgia-fueled good feelings. And, that’s what Job does in today’s chapter. The chapter follows an ancient poetic structure in which Job not only waxes nostalgic about how blessed he was, but at the center, he extolls the virtues of his generosity and benevolence (in defense of his friend Eli’s accusation in 22:9):

I was blessed (vss 2-6)
I was honored (vss 7-10)
I was generous and benevolent to the poor and needy (vss 11-17)
I was blessed (vss 18-20)
I was honored (vss 21-25)

In the quiet this morning, I am reminded that my natural bents can end up with crooked and unintended consequences. The glorification of what was can easily lead to me not being fully present in what is nor prepared for what is to come. For Job, I wonder if his trip down Memory Lane is essentially serving to emotionally pick at the scabs of his present suffering and fuel the fire of his resentment. I have learned along my life journey that sometimes I have to will and to discipline myself to be fully present in the moment, and give time and energy to preparing for what’s ahead. Gratefully, I have a partner who provides me with a really good example to follow.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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A Selective Backward Glance

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A Selective Backward Glance (CaD Job 8) – Wayfarer

“Surely God does not reject one who is blameless
    or strengthen the hands of evildoers.”
Job 8:20 (NIV)

I mentioned a previous post some of the different ways people communicate, and I hinted at time orientation. I hadn’t given a ton of thought to this until earlier this year when Wendy and I began to really explore how it affects our relationship and communication.

I have a very strong past orientation. I love history. When I was young adult and really began digging into understand myself, I began to dig into my family history. I am a product of the family system into which I was born and raised. My parents were products of the family systems into which they were born and raised. Human systems have certain ways they function and operate which can be generational in nature. In digging into the past I discovered a lot about my family and myself. Often look back in time to gain clarity on my present circumstances.

Wendy has a very strong future orientation. She appreciates my love of history, but also she rolls her eyes when I geek out on it. Unlike me, she is always thinking ten steps ahead with her internal radar because she knows that future circumstances will go much smoother for everyone involved if things are planned well, prepped for, and executed properly.

We have come to realize that some of our marital strife comes from the different time orientations with which we navigate life, but that’s another blog post.

In today’s chapter, we find Job continuing to sit on the refuse ash heap in his off-the-charts agony joined by three friends. Eli insinuated that Job’s suffering must point to some secret sin that caused the Almighty to punish Job. Job’s response was that he was innocent and did nothing to warrant his suffering, and challenged his friends to prove him wrong. So, his friend Bill steps into the batter’s box to take his swing.

Bill is a straight-shooter. He is direct and gets right to the point. He takes issue with Job’s claim of innocence and anguished cries to the Almighty. To Bill and his theological world-view, this is a black-and-white issue: “Your children sinned. God took them out. Period. End of sentence.”

What follows is fascinating because Bill clearly has a past time orientation. He tells Job to look to the past, the wisdom of the ancients and ancestors. in order to gain clarity on his present circumstances. Bill then shares a Hebrew wisdom poem (vss 11-19) about how the godless suffer the consequences of their godlessness. He then concludes in his black-and-white worldview that suffering is a spiritually natural consequence of godlessness and if Job was really blameless then God would restore Job’s fortunes and blessings.

I pondered Bill’s words in the quiet this morning. As someone with a strong past orientation, I quickly found Bill’s argument ludicrous. Human history is a long string of stories about human suffering, punctuated by certain events in which suffering happened on a massive scale. Within those events are nameless, faceless human beings who did not deserve their fate. My mind immediately reminded me of my trip to the U.S. Holocaust museum and the sight of all those shoes piled up just as they were piled up when their nameless, faceless owners were stripped and sent to the gas chambers.

My brain then provided me with a name, and a face from the past: Corrie Ten Boom and her family. Every other member of her family took of their shoes and placed them in that pile. Their only crime was that their love of Jesus and their desire to do the right thing led them to hide Jews in their home in an effort to save their lives. Her story of suffering in the concentration camp echoes Job’s anguished cries, and rightly so.

So, all due respect Bill, but in telling Job to take a backward glance to the past, to the ancients and their wisdom, you have chosen to be carefully selective in your stated evidence, so as to justify your simplistic conclusion. History is filled with nameless, faceless individuals who echo Job’s anguished cries in the suffering and death they blamelessly endured. Bill, you told Job that his words were “a blustering wind,” but it is your simplistic, theological world-view that I find as hollow as that pile of old, footless shoes.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Elijah: a Pivotal Character

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Elijah: a Pivotal Character (CaD 1 Ki 17) – Wayfarer

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”
1 Kings 17:1-2 (NIV)

One of the things that constantly amazes me in my ongoing journey through the Great Story is how events separated by hundreds and thousands of years and recorded by different authors are so interconnected.

Today’s chapter launches one of the most exciting and action-packed episodes in all of the Great Story. King Ahab is on the throne in the northern Kingdom of Israel. The Kingdom of Israel has abandoned Yahweh, the God of Moses and David, and has embraced one of the most popular regional deities, a fertility/storm god named Baal. This had been largely a business strategy for Israel which desired lucrative trade alliances with their neighboring Kingdoms (who all worshipped Baal). Ahab marries a Phoenician princess named Jezebel, who is a faithful advocate for the worship of Baal and other regional deities. The marriage was also a strategic trade alliance.

Out of nowhere there arrives a lone stranger, a prophet of God named Elijah. Elijah proclaims that there will be no rain, nor dew, except by his word. A catastrophic drought and famine begin.

What was fascinating for me in the rest of the chapter was the way that the events point back in time to earlier events and foreshadow future events of Jesus and His followers.

First, there’s the drought, which is a powerful metaphor for spiritual decline and need. Jesus said that He was “living water.” Water is a repetitive metaphorical theme God uses throughout the Great Story to communicate spiritual nourishment, abundance, and life. In the Garden of Eden at the beginning of Genesis and the new heaven at the end of Revelation I find the “river of life” watering the Tree of Life. Drought and the subsequent famine were, therefore, living word pictures of the spiritual consequences (lack, need, thirst, starvation, decline, death) that the Kingdom of Israel faced in giving themselves over to Baal worship.

God tells Elijah to go “east” beyond the Jordan River. East is the direction God told Adam and Eve to go out of the Garden of Eden. East is the direction of exile that the people of God at the hands of Assyria and Babylon. Elijah is also going into exile, into the wilderness across the Jordan where Moses and the Hebrew tribes wandered while seeking the Promised Land. For the Israelites of Elijah’s day, this was a stinging rebuke that the man of God was metaphorically separating from God’s people in the Promised Land and returning to the wilderness. I couldn’t help but also see this as a foreshadowing of Jesus, His followers, and the early Jesus Movement. When the Hebrew religious institution rejects, executes, and persecutes Jesus and His followers, their ministry expands to the non-Jewish Gentiles.

Elijah is fed by Ravens in the wilderness. They bring him bread and meat every morning and every night. This points back to God providing manna (bread) and quail (meat) to His people during their wilderness wanderings in Exodus. Ravens, however, were “unclean” for the Hebrew people as would be any food that came out of their mouths. This also foreshadows events of the early Jesus Movement when God tells Peter and the rest of Jesus’ followers that every food is “clean.”

Meat was a luxury in the diet of common people of Elijah’s day. Kings were among the only ones who could afford this luxury. And, there was a famine in the land. This meant that the King of Israel was likely going hungry in his palace while Elijah feasted on meat twice a day at Yahweh’s table.

Elijah is led to go to a Gentile widow’s house in Zarephath, foreshadowing the early Jesus movement being led to take Jesus’ message to the Gentiles like Peter being led to a Roman Centurian’s house in Acts.

There is a drought and famine going on, and Elijah has the audacity to ask a Gentile widow for water and bread. This foreshadows both Jesus asking a Gentile woman from Samaria for a drink of water and the audacity of Jesus telling his disciples to feed a crowd of thousands with a couple of loaves and a few fish. Elijah goes on to tell the woman to make bread from her flour and oil jars, explaining that the jars will miraculously never be empty just like the baskets of bread and fish that Jesus’ disciples passed around the crowds.

Elijah then raises the widow’s son from the dead, foreshadowing the same miracle that Jesus would perform on multiple occasions.

The prophet Elijah himself is a pivotal figure in the Great Story, and today’s chapter is a great example of this. Elijah hearkens back to earlier chapters of the Great Story, he is a lead character in the chapter of history in which he lived, and he foreshadows John the Baptist, Jesus’ earthly ministry, and where God will ultimately lead the story in future chapters. Elijah’s life and experiences metaphorically point to what God has done, is doing, and will do later in the story.

In the quiet this morning, I’m once again amazed at how the Great Story ties together across multiple sources and across time. I’m also once again reminded that the story is still being told, and that I have a role to play.

And with that thought, I enter my day.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Memorials

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Memorials (CaD Jos 4) – Wayfarer

So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.
Joshua 4:8-9 (NIV)

A few weeks ago, I shared about Storii, the company our daughter, Taylor, works for. As a part of their suite of software applications, they’ve introduced a process by which an individual regularly receives a phone call asking them a specific question (e.g. “What was your first job?”) and then giving them four minutes to record their answer. The recordings are then made available to family members. It’s genius in its simplicity, and it’s been fun that Taylor has my father participating. I’ve heard him share some things I’d never known before.

I’ve often shared in these posts about my love of history, including the history of my own family. I’ve always found that an understanding of the past helps inform my own present earthly journey. Wisdom can be found in knowing family stories. I just wish I knew more of them. Hence, my joy with what Taylor’s employer is doing.

In today’s chapter, Joshua orders twelve men, one from each of the Hebrew tribes, to gather a stone from the Jordan River bed. Joshua then had the stones placed as a memorial for future generations to remember what God had done on that day when the waters of the Jordan River were stopped up so that the people could cross on dry ground.

That got me thinking this morning about memorials. Ironically, sitting on my desk as I write this is a photograph and ticket I had laminated of the night Taylor had the folks at the Iowa Cubs surprise us, revealing the gender of our first grandson, Milo, on the giant scoreboard. It was such a great memory. I wanted a way to be continually reminded of it. I use the laminated photo as a bookmark, and it makes me happy every time I see it. It’s a memorial for me.

I’m reminded this morning that God specifically told His people to share their God stories with future generations:

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.
Deut 4:9 (NIV)

Of course, this begs a few questions: Do I have stories of what God has done in my life? What have my eyes seen God do? How have I experienced God’s goodness and faithfulness along my journey?

In the quiet this morning, today’s chapter has me thinking quite simply and practically. How do I share and leave the story about what God has done in my life for my descendants?

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Bad Blood

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Bad Blood (CaD Ob 1) – Wayfarer

Jacob will be a fire
    and Joseph a flame;
Esau will be stubble,
    and they will set him on fire and destroy him.
There will be no survivors
    from Esau.”
The Lord has spoken.
Obadiah 1:18 (NIV)

Some of the more fascinating discoveries in the excavation of my family history have been the bad blood that exists between individuals and family units. In some cases, entire family groups have had little or no relationship with one another for generations and have no idea that the distance is rooted in bad blood from generations before.

I found bad blood in both my paternal and maternal families. I discovered bad blood rising from a host of reasons including, but not limited to, unwanted pregnancies, marriages, re-marriages, inheritance, family business, addiction, and deception. Most commonly, bad blood occurred between siblings, but bad blood between parents and children was also present.

Today’s chapter is the prophecy of Obadiah who wrote a short prophetic poem against the nation of Edom at the time Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire were marching on Jerusalem around 600 B.C. The Edomites, who had considered joining the local defense against the Babylonian Empire, ended up siding with Babylon.

The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the elder twin brother of Jacob. If you were on our chapter-a-day journey through Genesis last year, you might recall the bad blood between them. Bad blood arose between brothers because of the favoritism demonstrated by both parents. Dad favored Esau. Mom favored Jacob. This led to Jacob’s deceptive stealing of Esau’s blessing and inheritance then fleeing into exile for years. All of this took place around 2000 B.C.

I did the math this morning. The bad blood Obadiah is writing about in today’s chapter between the people of Israel and the people of Edom began with a conflict between brothers 1400 years before Obadiah picked up his papyrus and stylus.

In the quiet this morning, I circle back to thinking about family. I know that a lot of people could give a rat’s rear-end about the past. I get it. I have always had a bent toward the past and a love of history. It was fascinating to learn that this is part of being an Enneagram Type Four. I have personally found it worthwhile in a couple of different respects.

First, I have gotten to correspond with and to know members of my family I would otherwise have never known. Their stories have added new layers of understanding of the family systems from which I spring. It helps me understand myself, my parents, my grandparents, and my great-grandparents and their stories in a greater context, along with a ton more grace. There’s so much in life we don’t control, including the family systems that produced us.

Second, is the old adage that “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” I have tried very hard along my life journey to avoid the traps that lead to the kind of bad blood which can affect individuals and family groups. I can’t help but recall Paul’s words to Jesus’ followers in Rome:  “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

Along my journey, I’ve discovered that living at peace requires me to care more about what matters than what doesn’t. That has meant valuing people over politics (or religion, or morality codes, etc.), choosing relationships over being right, and letting go of things of temporal value to perpetuate love that is priceless. This sometimes (often?) requires letting go of the past and choosing forgiveness so that future generations don’t systemically perpetuate bad blood they personally had nothing to do with simply because that bad blood was never dealt with and permanently infected the family system.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.