History speaks. The actual words are events and people, dates and places, the interwoven fabric of life that was. The spoken message is clear and distinct, calling out to us the refrains of experience, the multi-faceted lessons of success and failure, the people who did and the people who did not, the ones we celebrate and others we'd as soon forget. Skeletons lurk in the orations, surprises in the vocabulary, a veritable thesaurus of reality defining every human possibility, the full spectrum of life. Since there is nothing new under the sun, this wise guide speaks recurring themes, and asks of us only the discipline of hearing.
There's a good bit of debate about what history says to us, even in our small denominational bubble. Today there are many who believe history's words beckon us back to another place and time, to a moment frozen in our memory, a snapshot back there somewhere we'd like to re-capture. You see, there are many people who live in the past and long for the simple joys that may have been more real to them back then. As we Southern Baptists ponder the future, and as competing forces grapple for the soul of our denomination, these isolationists hear history's voice encouraging us to not only look back, but to aim back, move back, hold something back there up as our paradigm, an ideal, structure, or form that fit well those times, but maybe not these. They are separatists. They hear history calling, "come back here".
History doesn't call me back. Yes, it is a good rear view mirror to see where I've been and help me navigate where I'm going. Historian David McCullough said, "History is a guide to navigation in perilous times." To my ears, history's word is "LEARN", that is, examine what happened back there to inform was is happening here. Certainly, you can't go back. Sure, there are plenty of snapshots we'd like to re-live, erase some things, use the edit program on others, do the replay on still more. But, the beautiful garden of the past is guarded by flaming swords. We can't go back.
Church planter Paul wrote something about this. "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind, and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). Here is history vividly speaking, as this man was guided along by the Holy Spirit. The words here push us forward, not back, the straining and pressing on toward a goal that is waiting, yet to be achieved. This is a significant world-view issue. I mean, isn't the best yet to come?
OK, the world is in a mess. But, it is what it is, and we have been dispatched here to change it. We're not left to our own devices to accomplish this assignment. The Lord that is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow is not only with us, but he is in us. History screams, "LEARN THIS", and our faithful counselor "...teaches us all things" (John 14:26). So, our path is not back there in another time and place, but right here, the here and now, with the unchanging truth as our message and the eternal Lord as our exemplar, the Spirit of truth our guide.
Truth is portable, meaning, it is truth at all times and all places. It is not circumstantial or temporary or flexible. When we look back through the lens of truth we see mistakes and errors, the times when we fell short, targets missed, goals fumbled. History asks that we learn from them. Since we cannot re-live those moments, we must let them become part of our life instruction.
Southern Baptists have been at many denominational cross-roads. Traffic is treacherous and fast. We must stop! look! and listen! And, learn. You see, that's what history is speaking to us, in words that are loud and clear.
Comments