A tended landscape

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. (James Baldwin)

I'd have to say this is pretty accurate about most of us - our history actually 'traps us' and we are bound to it like super-glue to our fingers. All of us have a 'history'. All of us has had to deal with that 'history' or else we bury it deeper and deeper because it was too hard to deal with. Regardless of buried or 'dealt with', the history remains - it happened - it left a mark of sorts. On occasion I am haunted by some of the things I have done, said, or thought - in my distant past, but still coming up in my memory from time to time. It isn't that these things aren't under the grace of Jesus - sins confessed, dealt with, and moved on from. It is that our memory has a way of being used as a 'weapon' against us during some of our weakest moments. Maybe this is why God emphasizes us bringing EVERY thought captive - because the battle begins in the mind! If we allow those 'past events' to cloud our present, even when under the grace of Jesus, we are allowing things into our present that have absolutely NO right being there. It will lead to frustration, despair, hopelessness, and sometimes even anger. No good will come of it.

Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life. (James 1:21)

While our 'history' is within us - it happened, we were there and involved in it - it doesn't have to be in our present. God asks us to allow him to 'landscape us with the Word'. Why? The power of the Word of God combats those 'histrionic thoughts' that keep coming up. I am able to 'tell' my mind there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1-2). I am able to 'tell' my mind every thought is being brought captive and I will not dwell on past sins, missed opportunities, or wrongful decisions (2 Corinthians 10:5). Do you see what I did there? I used scripture to combat those thoughts that come to haunt me from my past. What did Jesus do while facing Satan in the wilderness? He used the Word of God! Why would it be any different for us? It shouldn't be! We are to be 'landscaped with the Word of God' - taking in the Word actually creates a 'different landscape' than our past laid out before us, and this is a very good thing!

We have to invite him into our 'history', though. When we do, grace covers over the things that could haunt us for years and years. In fact, he takes our 'history' and turns it into HIS STORY. The story he tells with our lives is one of grace upon grace. It is the turning of the soil time and time again that makes the richest of gardens. The landscaper doesn't just plant, walk away, and hope for the best. He tends each plant, replenishing the soil, turning it from time to time, and adding what is needed to bring about the most luxurious of landscapes. Can we expect God to do the same within us through his Word? Absolutely! Some of our  history brought us grief and peril - but through the Word of God, grief was replaced by joy and peril by hope. Trust him to do his work with your past. The landscape is set - let the landscaper now tend it! Just sayin!

Old history be gone!

I don't think there is anything more damaging to our overall sense of well-being than for us to continually rehearse the 'bad stuff' in life. The 'stuff' may have happened TO us, or we may have been the ones to have DONE it. Regardless, to continually go over and over all that "old history" is really not all that productive and it might actually be the cause of why we aren't moving forward right now! There is something much more powerful in 'being present' in the moment - to be focused on what it is we can take control of within ourselves, then turning the rest over to God to let him have the reins in our lives. 

“Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands." (Isaiah 43:18 MSG)

To forget about what's happened one must be willing to let go of both 'hurts' done to us and those things that aren't doing us any good to hold onto, like all those hang-ups we continually make excuses to ourselves and others about instead of dealing with them. I know this is easier said than done, for I also have struggled with holding onto hang-ups God has asked me to put down. It may have been my stubbornness or simply my inability to trust things will ever 'get better' if I did put them down. To let go I had to yield where I had been unyielding, and go 'all in' where I had been lacking in trust. It isn't that I didn't know what to do - it is that I had to be willing to live in the present, allowing God to change my present, instead of me holding onto my past!

"Old history" - we all have it. We all deal with it differently. We all have those moments when we resort back to some old way of thinking - falling back on what happened instead of focusing on what is happening now. We miss what is happening now if we do! We close our eyes to God's presence in our lives - we only see the impossibilities - but where he is, there are infinite possibilities. Desert places aren't easily traversed, are they? Why? There are obstacles in the way. The dry places we experience there make the journey even harder. Isn't it good to know that God is in the business of clearing the way and providing for us to be refreshed along the way?

Be alert and be present. Actions are described there, my friends. Most of the problems we have with our 'old history' is that we have been unable to take some action we have been asked to take at some point along the way. We were supposed to seek forgiveness from one we wronged, but we didn't. We were asked to lay something down, but we stubbornly held on. We were called to go above and beyond, but we simply stood still and let life happen around us. Be alert - pay attention, get focused, and be prepared for action. Be present - take notice, and be real. Being present means we are willing to be 'genuine' about ourselves - admitting where we have failed, owning our next steps, and then taking the action required.

The more we focus on the 'old history' portion of our lives, the more we get mired down by that history. The moment we come into the present, we open ourselves to being transparent, real, and truthful with ourselves, God, and others. This is the starting place for moving out of the 'old history' portion of our lives and into the 'new places' God is about to bring us into by his grace. Just sayin!

The past's place

It was Alfred Lord Tennyson who said, "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." He also said, "Tis not too late to seek a newer world." With all that is going on in our world today, wouldn't it be grand to seek a "newer world"? We may want to escape just a little of the present in hopes of finding a little bit better of a future - but what we have in the present cannot be ignored. We must deal with the present conflict and sorrow in order to really see change. This is a premise to change - sometimes sorrow leads us to make changes we might not ever see as necessary apart from that sorrow. As Tennyson alluded - wisdom is what lingers once the sorrow has produced the work of turning knowledge into life-change.

10 The kind of sorrow God wants makes people decide to change their lives. This leads them to salvation, and we cannot be sorry for that. But the kind of sorrow the world has will bring death. (2 Corinthians 7:10 ERV)

The Corinthian church was pretty upset over some letters they had received from the Apostle Paul, reminding them that they could not tolerate certain unholy practices within their community of believers. It seemed there were some practices just being "tolerated" - a "blind eye" being turned to them even though there was a sense or niggling these practices might just be "wrong". It can be more common than we might first imagine that we "overlook" certain things, knowing full-well they are not "holy" or "right", but for whatever reason, we tolerate them in our midst anyway. Sometimes it is "tolerated" because it makes up part of our "history". At others, it may be overlooked because it doesn't "seem to be that big of a deal". At some point, everything tolerated or overlooked has the potential to become a bigger influence in our lives than we might have imagined!

As these things might come to the surface, God isn't after us to just allow them to remain - he is asking for us to be open to the potential we might just need to deal with them - change won't happen until we do! I have said it before, but it bears repeating because I think this is a tough one for us to learn - change is inevitable, but it is also quite hard at times. Change might just mean we have deal with a little sorrow - the kind of sorrow that drives us to embrace what is not right and then deal with it once and for all (or better yet, we allow God, through his Holy Spirit, to deal with it).

Could it just be possible what some have tolerated for so long as part of their "history" might need some focus right now? History is not always "well-written", nor was it "well-rehearsed". History is what it is - sometimes good and sometimes bad. What is good, we should embrace. What isn't, we should allow God to deal with - using that sorrow as a means by which we might come to the place of embracing holiness in place of what is not. Just sayin!

Shades of Grey

History:  the aggregate of past events; all that is preserved or remembered about the past.  We ALL have a history, do we not?  For some of us, the "story" is quite involved, colorful, and a little seedy at times.  For others, the "story" may be a little less complicated, kind of mundane, without too many shades of grey.  Regardless of the "shades" painted by our past, there are still things from our past which act upon us today, influencing how we interact with the present.

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently. (Romans 14:1 MSG)

It is sometimes quite difficult to welcome into our fellowship those with "histories" which vary completely from our own - especially when their history is filled with all kinds of shades of grey.  For those who see things as black or white, dealing with anything marginally outside of "white" or "black" is almost unnerving.  As you get further from white or black, it is easier to "judge" the individual as "too far out" of the acceptable "range" - in turn, we almost cannot accept them into our fellowship.  Here's something I have had to learn in my own life - even I have shades of grey, if I am honest with myself, which probably give someone else just a little bit of difficulty dealing with!

Jesus was not the kind of guy to exclude those with a past.  In fact, he took in the Roman employed Jewish tax collector.  Now, if you don't see the contradiction in terms there, you need to understand Roman had taken Jerusalem - they were the ruling party - taxing the Jews was part and parcel with a ruling party's agenda.  To employ a Roman soldier or citizen to do the task of taxing the citizens of their new territory would not be a big deal, but to employ a Jew - blasphemous!  Jesus also took in the ones in the community who had been labeled as having just too many shades of grey for them to "fit" into the normal church-going crowd - such as the prostitutes, lepers, and ceremonially unclean.  

Everywhere we observe Jesus, we seeing him dealing with those who caused the "self-righteous" a whole lot of concern - simply because they only saw the "shades of grey" in the lives of these outcasts of society.  Jesus saw way beyond the shades of grey, into the heart and spirit of these men and women.  In contrast to the self-righteous, he embraced them - not afraid their many shades of grey would rub off on him.  In fact, he embraced them openly because he was giving us an example of what it is to extend grace - favor where it is not deserved.

From our passage above, Paul issues a challenge to believers everywhere.  We all come to Christ with our "histories" - no one is without one.  As we do, we all have one thing in common - grace.  It is upon this foundation of grace we are to invite into fellowship those who have embraced the work of grace in their lives.  They will not "perform" as we might expect them to for quite some time - still dealing with the various "shades of grey" which have been part of their lives for a long time.  Yet, in time, if they are welcomed with open arms and gentle spirits, grace will have its effect.  Instead of judging these individuals, we should be welcoming them - as did Jesus.  The telling words in our passage, "Remember, they have their own history to deal with," is really what Jesus was saying all along as he taught, healed, enjoyed a meal with, and just plain hung out with those with "histories".  

The sad thing we forget is our own history and the fact someone else is having to deal with OUR history, as well.  It is easy to see the "shades of grey" in another, all the while forgetting the shades of grey in ourselves.  We would do well to consider the common ground we each have if we are believers - grace!  Just sayin!