The Mystery Of History, Thursday Night Study, Week 3

Genesis 1:26-27
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our own likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

"Who knows what I have in me of the deaf old lady on 79th street and the young man in gray slacks and a maroon sweater who in their heyday begot me? Who knows what all of us have in us not just of our parents but of their parents before them and so on back beyond any names we know or any faces we would recognize if we came upon their portraits hanging on an antique shop wall?”

“The passage from Genesis points to a mystery greater still. It says that we come from farther away than space and longer ago than time.” Frederick Buechner

When life comes crashing down around us we come face to face with our beliefs, with ourselves, with our frail attempts at making life on the outside look better than life on the inside feels. Whether we are aware of it or not everyday we come face to face with our history, every day our history speaks itself into the present and more often than not without our consent or our being aware of. But with societal demands and impatient kids, with fiscal deadlines and ominous headlines, with the car, the mortgage, and baby in the oven who has time to pay attention, or….. even care?

We push on ourselves to fit in, keep going, get it together and make it all work, we smother the history that haunts and taunts in lieu of a life that shouts over the sound of a heart slowly dying.

We wonder why we can never connect with anyone and when we do our conversations are superficial and the void inside continues to gnaw at the edges of our sanity. But how are we supposed to connect with anyone if we are disconnected with ourselves and more than likely they are the same? We see it here in our society; we walk around with our head phones on, we keep our personal distance hoping no one gets too close. We drive with our windows up, we walk with our eyes down, we maintain the status quo and when someone else doesn’t we turn our eyes, embarrassed.

We have everything we need except access to the mystery that is us, but in our culture know one seems to think that has any place; it’s the get rich or die trying, the too good for you, the chosen and the better thans that are lifted up as our examples of who we should be. We have everything we need except our true selves.

So what is this answer we are all looking for?

Maybe a better question is “Why am I searching?” or

“Why do I need an answer when I am feeling: lost, lonely, sad, rejected, separated, pain, ________?"

Do this; take inventory of who you are. Write down in single terms words that describe you. For every word there is a root, and if the root is good it will lead you back through history and events that have shaped you, it will lead you in memories better left forgotten, past people who have changed you, it will lead you to healing, it will lead you home into the arms of the creator who formed you in a place “farther away then space and longer ago than time”.

And if the root is; no good, loser, quitter, shameful, nobody, ruin-er, wimp, _____, any of the tags our wounds put on us, we must carry them, we must carry them down into our history past the events that caused them to the Mystery that caused us into existence and lay them at his feet and allow Him to whisper healing, to rewrite what was written.

So when life comes crashing down, sit down, catch your breath, you’re allowed you know. It’s o.k. to not be o.k. sometimes. It’s o.k. to open up and cry sometimes, and if we walk forward through our history we might end up with a clearer view of life and a hope in the mystery of God and Us.“Come to Me” (Matt. 11:28a) by Ken Mc