Jan 22, 2014

Mind your markers

by Kevin Butler

 

Elizabeth Akers Allen wrote this in 1860:

“Backward, turn backward, O time in your flight,

Make me a child again just for tonight.

Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years!

I am so weary of toil and of tears.”

 

It’s comforting to recall happier times of childhood. But living in the past can become troublesome when it’s simply an escape from your current work and being involved in the present.

If only there were some “markers” to reflect on to give us strength for today…

Moses charged the Israelites to remember such events as he was preparing to transfer his leadership, and the throngs were about to enter the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy 8:1-3, Moses carefully guided the people toward exactly what they were to remember. In fact, that command to “remember” could be translated “mark.” (Think of a chart or a map where certain facts or events are marked and riveted into your memory.)

“Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years” verse 2 says. Going on, the remembering or marking is for specific purposes:

• “to humble you”

• “to test you in order to know what was in your heart”

• “to teach you that man does not live on bread alone”

 

Pride

We need to learn the same lessons today.

David Rhodes once said that “Pride is the dandelion of the soul. Its root goes deep; only a little left behind sprouts again. Its seeds lodge in the tiniest encouraging cracks. And it flourishes in good soil. The danger of pride is that it feeds on goodness.”

Are we humble?

 

What’s in our heart?

In his book Fan the Flame, Joe Stowell writes, “The ‘Heart’ is used in Scripture as the most comprehensive term for the authentic person. It is the part of our being where we desire, deliberate, and decide. It has been described as ‘the place of conscious and decisive spiritual activity,’ ‘the comprehensive term for a person as a whole; his feelings, desires, passions, thought, understanding and will.’ And it’s ‘the center of a person. The place to which God turns.’”

That memory, that event, that marker—was it a test to see what’s in your heart?

 

Not live on bread alone

How many times do we miss the “manna” of the Lord and try to rely on our own street-smarts and the “physical” answers?

God implores us to not put our full trust in food or the physical. He says, “Trust ME. Believe in MY promises. Pray to ME and don’t get sucked into the ways of the world!”

 

Nicholas Rowe said that “Memory is a ‘treasurer’ to whom we must give funds if we want to draw the assistance we need.”

Let’s visit that reservoir of memory and those markers of our lives, but make sure that we don’t live there.

May we remember our times of wandering and testing in order to be humbled, to see what’s in our heart, and to trust the Lord instead of the physical.