[HIS]story
Dear friends and family,
Tami and I took some time off the last several weeks and I spent a lot of time reflecting on our church. It was great to get some time away, but I’m so excited to see everyone! Before vacation, I was blessed to spend a lot of time with my mentor, Reggie McNeal. Reggie had our staff watch a TED Talk by Simon Sinek called, “How To Discover Your “Why” In Difficult Times.” In a nutshell, the video talked about the psychological impact of COVID—and all of the other things we’ve dealt with as a society in the last couple of years— has had on all of us. The video brought up so many things to reflect on, not the least of which is our call to be the church today.
Sinek described the events of 2020/2021 in terms of shared trauma, which has resulted in PTSD for many people in our world today. The more I thought about what he was saying the more I realized how easy it is to get lost in all of the crises, losing sight of our call to be the church. If our call is to be a rock in the midst of the storm, I can’t imagine a time with more potential for the church to live out its call than right now.
But the problem is, each one of us has been swimming in the deep end of the various crises of 2020/2021. There is a larger vision that can help ground each of us as we navigate our way through it all.
In my time off I spent a lot of time thinking about various stories in the Bible. I love to read the stories of how God called the major figures of the Bible. Characters like Abraham and Sarah, Moses, and Gideon all have amazing lessons for us in the way they responded to God’s call. I wonder how different the world world be if they said “No” to God’s call? I also wonder how many people have lived since those figures walked the earth? Each lived centuries before Jesus. In the last one-hundred years there have been millions of people who lived and died and are now completely forgotten. Why do we still remember the Old Testament characters I mentioned above? I think because it’s so clear that they are characters in God’s story. We don’t read the story of Abraham and Sarah, or the story of Moses or the story of Gideon. We read how Abraham and Sara and Moses and Gideon were characters in God’s story. In saying “yes” to God’s call, they were really saying yes to being identified first and foremost as a child of God. And that is the key to a legacy that will extend long after we leave this existence.
When I look back at the Biblical stories it’s so clear what really makes each of them great is they traded the futility of living life for the self and found real meaning in fully embracing a call to be a part of HIS story. We remember them because of their true greatness: they are characters of HIS story. And we can be too, but the key to gaining life is losing it. Which is as counter cultural as you can get in our world.
Our human condition is self centeredness. Nothing gets in the way of being able to truly follow Jesus like our own ego and narcissism. When we say yes to God’s call, it’s a realization that it’s not about us, it’s about God. It’s at that point that a life which never ends really begins. The greatest blessing we can experience is to be a character in God’s story. Meaning and purpose are found when we give our lives to God to be characters in His story.
I’m really excited to start a new series this weekend called HIS story. We will study various characters from the Old and New Testaments who said “yes” to God’s call. God worked through them centuries ago and the world was never the same. I believe God wants to do the same through you and me today. The world is in crisis, no question. Years from now, when they look back on this time, will we be forgotten in the history? Or will we be remembered as characters in HIS Story? How we respond to both His call and our world crises matters.
In Christ, your pastor,
Bryan White