SCRIPTURE: Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this. Ecclesiastes 7:10 AMP
THOUGHT: Between Jesus who says don’t worry about tomorrow, and Solomon who says, don’t long for the past, seems to me we’re pretty much stuck with how we should live today.
Jesus didn’t mean we aren’t to think about tomorrow, plan for it or anticipate it, he just says don’t worry about it. And Solomon didn’t mean don’t think about the past, and pull from it what can help you with today, he just said don’t live in it, making it out to be better than sliced bread. That’s not wise, he says.
For some of us, it’s just complicated to be happy and present, and yet that is what Scripture is asking of us. Like the ancient Hebrews, we start painting pictures of Egypt, leaving out what it lacks, ’cause the future feels so hard I wanna go back (thank you Sara Groves).
I am often a worrier, hamstrung between the past and future. It’s hard for me to live in today, not regurgitating some memory from years ago and rushing past what God has done today out into the future to try to predict how that hard thing could happen again and what I might do about it. Or rushing past today into trying to predict the future of our country and culture and idealizing and longing for the past. It’s neurotic. It’s fear. It’s anti-faith.
But the God of wisdom is God over all of time and outside of time – he doesn’t really see a future or a past, and he’s not constrained by either. Real wisdom is finding a place to rest today – trusting both past and future to him because he’s made provision for both. That’s freedom. If we’ll have it.
SONG: Painting Pictures of Egypt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdSH9hut4kU
PRAYER: Oh God, your word says the best place for me to find life and freedom is right here. Right now. Give me the gift of contentment on the one hand, and faith on the other, trusting you with the past and future as the God outside of time.
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Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.
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