Learn: Let the Past Teach You.

As a geezer I've experienced a few of the agonies and many of the ecstasies of life this side of heaven. They are memories etched in the synapses of this aging brain. Many of them are recorded on film, captured in precious objects, or reflected in the faces of people who have influenced this life. The experts over in the physiology department promise they are stored as explicit, implicit, and working memories, the stuff of life at several experiential levels. There's a unifying theme about them, though. They are all recollections of the past. And, isn't that a perplexing study right now, how we humans deal with the realities in the rear-view mirror? What may seem to be an ecstasy to me may appear as an agony to the next person. You see, interpreting the past is a personal thing, a decision each of us must make. And, what is more, remembering or forgetting the past aren't really options available to us.

There are times I wish I could punch the delete button or run a magnet over my tiny brain to activate some sort of forget mechanism up there. Sadly, I cannot. Forgetting is one of those nearly impossible neurosciences. The valuable stuff of life is recorded up there indelibly. To forget unpleasant or hurtful events, people, or circumstances involves much more than pretending they didn't occur. Sure, we humans relish remembering the more favorable elements of life. They often bring a smile or a nod, or remind us of something or someone who introduced delight in to the past. In any event, whether we remember or forget anything back there is a personal decision. What may bring a smile to one person may bring a shudder to another.

This Christian worldview that I speak of so often should be the guide for approximately 65% of American citizens who click the little box labeled Christian in their religious preferences. It's because the Christian worldview values the past. Not because it is always such fun and games or pleasant, but because the past is among our most effective teachers. It's a significant theme in the Bible, how we fallible humans can learn from those things that happened back there, whether good or bad. Check it out---

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through

endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Romans 15: 4, ESV

Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes

have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them

known to your children and your children's children—

Deuteronomy 4: 9, ESV

Remember the days of old, Consider the years of all generations. Ask your father, and

he will inform you, Your elders, and they will tell you.

Deuteronomy 32: 7, ESV

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they

did.

1 Corinthians 10: 6, ESV

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our

instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

1 Corinthians 10: 11, ESV

The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction,

to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness,

justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the

youth—Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain

guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their

riddles.

Proverbs 1: 1-6, ESV

God inspired the words, instruction, and history of his redemptive work as lesson plans for those who would live the life he planned for them. In the Bible, the past is our teacher. We learn from what has happened before us.

It's true, governments at every level of life in these United States have memorialized people, events, actions, occasions, and principles in monuments, statues, walls, gateways, buildings, sidewalks, and even highway and bridge names as a life curriculum for our citizens. Some remembrances are outstanding, some not so much, depending on our personal life experiences. They are, however, our teachers, whether reflections of a good or bad past. That's perhaps why the recent destruction of monuments and memorials by protesting factions of our population have been so disturbing to me. Erasing the past is not a mature or principled action. Like it or not, the past is what it is: the past. We can't go back there to change it. The Christian worldview would have us learn from the past, not obliterate it or seek to change it.

And, we should be life-long learners, and let the past teach us something. More tomorrow about forgetting the past.

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Lean.

It's not really a recent crisis, how the past, present, and future should influence our journey. The human species has always had some difficulty finding balance in the times of our lives. Some of us are wired with keen retro vision, personal strengths to identify value and purpose in what was. At the same time there are millions today who are over-whelmed by the circumstances of the moment. Backward and forward are both subsumed by now. Then again, forward is a life focus of anticipation and expectation that moves many of us past the exigencies of this minute. In total, they are essentially the stuff creating so much unrest in the social dynamics around us. Our points of reference seem so at odds that precious unity and harmony, our historical character, appears threatened. Who among us can deny the racial tension that has marked our national epoch? How are we mere humans going to solve these tragic realities? Can this racial and cultural unrest, among so many other crises, be finally remedied.

The Christian worldview, in my limited opinion, gives us direction in understanding the times of our lives, as diverse as they are. If every Christian in America, somewhere in the neighborhood of 65% of our population, would live this worldview beyond Sunday, we could perhaps overcome the division that seems so destructive right now. And, in my heart and mind, every believer should lean forward, that is, view life through the glorious promises our heavenly Father have graciously given us. You see, as believers, we are promised an abundant life in the here and now, and the joys and blessings of eternity when our lives here end. Yes, there's past we'll discuss on Tuesday, and a right here right now perspective we'll get to later this week. Today we're leaning forward, what should be the prevailing attitude lens for people of faith.

It's a stretch for many church people, perhaps those in mosques and synagogues as well. The precepts of our faith are ancient. In many ways our spiritual absolutes include preserving our historic traditions and the tenets that comprise our belief systems. At times those historic practices and virtue become idols of worship rather than precious ideals. Being cemented to the past keeps many of us from leaning forward. What God has for his people in the future is often obscured by the drive to protect what was. But, leaning forward refreshes our understanding of what God has promised. Leaning forward is a profound Biblical stance in this Christian worldview. Make note---

Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.

Proverbs 4: 25, ESV

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil,

to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29: 11, ESV

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion

at the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1: 6, ESV

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man

imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him".

1 Corinthians 2: 9, ESV

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,

according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ

Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3: 20-21, ESV

For he (Abraham) was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer

and builder is God.

Hebrews 11: 10, ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he

has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ

from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in

heaven for you,

1 Peter 1: 3-4, ESV

As usual, there are many more Scripture passages that emphasize the blessings and hope that awaits us. As noted, those promises are innumerable, beyond measure. They should be our guides when past, present, and future are colliding in our everyday lives. Anticipating heaven and the joys of eternity should produce in us the changes of heart that give correction to our relational complications and human responses to the people around us.

We should live here on this earth with a view of what God has promised. And, in this new nature, we should lean forward.

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We the people.

It's an interesting and often perplexing concept, we the people. They are the opening words of the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States---

We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,

establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense,

promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and

our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of

America.

If the government established by this Constitution was a pure democracy those words would clearly identify the citizens of America as the governing authority. Our governing systems is, to be more specific, a representative republic, governed by officials elected by voters to direct the affairs of the nation. Today, it is a vast, complex three pronged colossus of executive, legislative, and judicial branches with little direct influence of we the people. This government, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, "...of the people, for the people, by the people..." is actually the product of those elected officials functioning under the loose rules of separation of power and checks and balances. We the people are the invisible backdrop of a cumbersome system.

Here's a simple example that happened this past Wednesday. A monument honoring John C. Calhoun was removed from Marion Square in downtown Charleston after being in that location for 124 years. Calhoun was a South Carolinian remembered for serving as the seventh Vice President of the United States, a member of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, Secretary of State, and Secretary of War. He was also known to support slavery and states rights, and was a slave owner himself. In the aftermath of the George Floyd killing by police, several racial justice factions, including Black Lives Matter, demanded the removal of his monument from such a honored place in old Charleston. Charleston's Mayor, John Tecklenburg convened the members of the Charleston City Council and they voted 100% to remove the memorial. It was removed and will be stored in an undisclosed location. We the people were not consulted. Elected official decided for them. Evidently they feared further downtown terror if they had refused or even delayed.

Well, yes, that's the system our founders designed and which was ratified by nine states on June 21, 1788. Even then, with thirteen states, a population of around 4,000,000, with primitive communication, hearing from we the people would have been difficult. There were factions then---the Federalists and Republicans, land owners and tenants, the moneyed citizens and the workers, among others---that made the constitutional convention of 1787 quite interesting. Even so, the government system they devised accomplished levels of unity that were globally unique at the time.

Advance the calendar 232 years and note the changing demographics of the United States . Now there are 50 states, the District of Columbia, and many territories. The current population of the United States is approximately 330,000,000 of which

153, 070,000 are registered to vote (as of 2019). Even with advanced technology hearing from we the people in every issue facing government is nearly impossible. That is the beauty and often the frustration of our representative republic. We rely on our elected officials to represent we the people in seeking the common good. The political clout of factions, special interest groups, and political parties have distanced the voice of we the people from government processes even more.

This Christian worldview provides sure guidance regarding our responsibilities to government. Romans 13: 1-7 is the most often referenced biblical instruction about the Christian attitude toward government. Click here to read these verses. There is also the expectation that we should pray for government officials. Click here to read the verses from 1 Timothy 2: 1-4. We the people should support our government at least to the point that it may violate our spiritual absolutes. And, we should pray for those elected to lead us. Even more, we should vote our convictions in every election, and voice our concerns to those elected to serve the common good. Click here for contact information of elected officials to express your thoughts about the direction of our government,

We the people can be the most significant faction in our government system if we vote and give our voice to those elected to serve us.

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