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“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you ….”
(Jeremiah 1:5)
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Before
Before.
Many
of us have little interest in history. The ancient dates, places, and
names all seem so far removed and so irrelevant to right now. So, when
it comes to Scripture we have already been lulled into historical
apathy. But the Bible drives home time and time again that our lives
are merely pinpoints in a grand drama.
Before
our parents … before the web … before this nation … before the
Reformation … before the barbarian hordes … before the ancient Romans,
Greeks, and Egyptians … before bronze ages, iron ages, and old ages …
was God. He was, is, and will be.
As
Eugene Peterson (Run With Horses: 38) writes:
“This
realization has a practical result: no longer do we run here and there,
panicked and anxious, searching for the answers to life. Our lives are
not puzzles to be figured out. Rather, we come to God, who knows us and
reveals to us the truth of our lives. The fundamental mistake is to
begin with ourselves and not God. God is the center from which all life
develops. If we use our ego as the center from which to plot the
geometry of our lives, we will live eccentrically.”
“All
wise reflection corroborates Scripture here. We enter a world we didn’t
create. We grow into a life already provided for us. We arrive in a
complex of relationships with other wills and destinies that are
already in full operation before we are introduced. If we are going to
live appropriately, we must be aware that we are living in the middle
of a story that has begun and will be concluded by another. And this
other is God.”
It’s
so easy to conclude that God’s task is to join us in our story.
Consequently, we fail to realize that we belong instead to His story.
We expect His attention while granting Him little of our own. We invite
Him to fit our expectations rather than search out His leading. And in
the process, life seems less than abundant.
Let’s
not begin with ourselves, our circumstances, needs, desires, and
dreams. Today, let’s start with Him.
Before. Perhaps
the word calls us to new levels of trust, confidence, faith, and
surrender.
In
HOPE –
David
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