“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 43:18-19 (The Message)
I remember the only touchdown I ever scored. It was a junior varsity game at home in Greenwood. We were facing the Crane Golden Cranes, and I caught a wide-open pass and raced to the end zone. I can remember seeing the defender from Crane trying to close the distance between us; I can feel his fingertips brush the bottom of my cleats as he dove; I can hear the excitement of the fans as I crossed the goal line. In my memory the play went for probably 75 or 80 yards, and I sprinted away from the defense for at least 60 of those yards. As the slogan goes, “The older I get, the better I was.”
It is easy for us to cling to the past. The glory days. Those times in our past that we remember as being the pinnacle. They are memories we can hold onto, memories that help let us recall who we were, memories that help us relive what was, once upon a time. After all, we know what happened, we have already lived it so there isn’t anything for us to be worried about. But always living in the past—especially in our faith—is a detrimental thing for us to do. It can prevent us from moving forward into the new places God is calling us to go.
Don’t misunderstand me on this. It is healthy for us to remember the past, to be able to relate the stories of who we were and where we have come from to those who are coming along behind us. God commanded the Israelites to do the same thing: to remember the stories of their past, the stories of what God had done for them, to pass them from generation to generation. The problem was when they wanted the past to also be their future.
In the passage from Isaiah at the beginning of this article, God is telling the people to forget about what had been—not to wipe it from their minds, but to stop trying to relive it—and to instead begin to look ahead to the new thing God is in the process of doing.
On October 12 we will gather here at St. Mark’s UMC from 9:00 am – 2:30 pm to look toward the future, toward the new things God is in the process of doing. We will learn about what Fresh Expressions of church and of faith God may be calling us to participate in. After all, God is continually creating and renewing, and we are invited to be a part of God’s process. So, I hope you will join us as we look forward to what God is going to do at St. Mark’s and beyond.
Grace and Peace y’all,
Pastor Blake
