Usually on this blog I invite all of my readers from all walks to ponder life’s issues together. Today’s thought goes out specifically for my “teacher family,” but also has application for all seeking divine meaning in their lives.
This morning I awoke before the sun was up (as teachers do in the school year) and my thoughts were immediately drawn to my students, and exactly how I was going to make music class fun and engaging with so many of the defining activities that define music class being restricted by my district for safety reasons.
As I was lying in the darkness of my bedroom, not having yet left my bed, I began to feel the familiar still, small voice of God speak to me with a volume and clarity He usually reserves for such moments when I especially need guidance.
“What if all of this isn’t a distraction from your purpose?” The words began to form in the quietness of my spirit. Then a verse of scripture: “Who knows, whether you have been placed here for such a time as this?”
I immediately recognized the verse as belonging to the story of Esther, and I began to recognize parallels in the story of this Godly saint and the position we are in as educators.
Esther was literally thrust into a position she never asked for by a pagan king of an invading nation that wasn’t of her people, and because she humbly sought to be used where she was, not where she wanted to be, she saved an entire people group from genocide.
Many of us as teachers have been placed in situations where our own health and safety as well as those of our students seems precarious. And on Monday, students who have experienced trauma will come to us seeking healing, normalcy, emotional support, and so much more.
You, beautiful friend, may feel inadequate and not up to the task. As I heard this voice, this morning, I sat up on the side of my bed, and with tears in my eyes I could only respond with something like, “Lord, I’m nothing special. I’m not the most gifted teacher out there, frankly I’m not really sure what I’m doing anymore and I feel kind of lost… But, I will respond with the words of the prophet of old: Here I am, Lord, send me… On the condition that you don’t make me do this alone. Because I don’t think I can do this on my own.”
And then I remember hearing once more again with such clarity, “I am with you ALWAYS (there was emphasis on that word) even to the end of the age.”
“Ok… then here we go,” I responded as I finally left my bed.
Some of you may need this reminder: You are NOT walking this path alone. Divine help is ALWAYS available when we stop and ask for it. And if you ever need a listening ear, I’m always here as well…
We live in such “unprecedented times” that that phrase has become worn out and tired. We’re simultaneously fighting diseases of the body and of the soul, and even though the people of our nation are more divided now than many of us can ever recall, I still believe in the grand democratic experiment of America.
I’ll admit I’m on a bit of a hopeful “patriotic high” with Hamilton opening on Disney + the same weekend we’re all full of steak and desserts with fireworks exploding dramatically overhead for America’s birthday. However, I have more than just good feelings and a sugar high to back up my assertion. I believe I have historical track record on my side, when you consider just how much our nation has already survived…
In the words of former President Obama, “Hamilton is the civics lesson we just can’t get enough of,” and I would agree with him. But the show is more than just amazing vocal performances… It’s a reminder that American History is an open book in which each of us can write our own stories.
What about our divided political landscape? How do we recover from how deeply divided we are? Those are questions you’ll hear bandied about by the media’s “talking heads” quite a bit… But here’s some history that Hamilton reminded me of tonight, in its creative staging of the Election of 1800 in Act II: American politics have been cantankerous since the beginning, and the American populace has frequently been split down the middle on how to handle national issues. Being a “divided nation” isn’t a new problem. It was a reality when the Founding Fathers were still living, breathing, and governing.
The presidential race in 1800 between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr was evenly tied (talk about a divided nation) and the election had to be resolved by the United States’ delegates, and just like in the musical, Alexander Hamilton was one of the influential men who swayed the vote in Jefferson’s favor which started a path toward his fatal duel with Burr… And here we are over 200 years later beaming a musical about the events from thin air into our smart TV’s (sounds almost like science fiction, huh?) as we celebrate our nation’s 244th birthday. America survived political division then, and we will survive it now.
Why do I believe that? Is it because I have confidence in the greatness of our elected officials. Oh Lord, no… I couldn’t even say that with a straight face… But I do have confidence in the American Experiment, and I believe in the ideals of the Constitution.
Differing viewpoints don’t make us a weaker nation, they give us the strength of multiple perspectives to glean from, if we can all take some time to really listen to each other’s stories.
There are still many challenges ahead, and we won’t all agree on the best way to tackle every issue that comes up. But if we can stop seeing everyone whose opinion differs from ours as an enemy, and lay down our own “dualing pistols,” then perhaps we might make the journey a bit smoother.
I still believe in “One Nation, Under God”
I still believe in “We the People…”
I still believe in “Liberty and Justice FOR ALL,”
Despite everything we’ve recently seen, I still believe in America, and I’m still proud to be an American… And I am not throwing away my shot…
There’s been a lot said about “Southern Heritage,” so as someone whose family has lived in the Southern part of the United States for over five generations, let me clear some things up:
Being Southern means you’re capable of withstanding heat index temps that rival the surface of the sun.
It means Fried Chicken and Sweet Tea are SERIOUS business and objects of religious levels of devotion.
Being Southern means you say “Bless their heart…” in both a genuinely empathetic fashion, and a “How do they dress themself in the morning?” fashion…
It means you most likely have a church pew somewhere that is “your pew.”
It means you have an unhealthy obsession with magnolias…
Being Southern is being able to point to a random piece of furniture in your house and give the names of AT LEAST two ancestors that owned it before you did…
It’s hymns of faith, beautiful sunsets, starry nights, and owning a porch swing… But also being embarrassed to admit that those things really aren’t that comfortable for long sitting sessions…
Flying the flag of a failed Confederate nation that lasted for a shorter amount of time than it takes to obtain a graduate degree, and that made as one of its defining traits the enslavement and oppression of an entire race of humanity, isn’t Southern Pride… Because true Southerners aren’t proud at all about that dark chapter of our history.
Real southerners are people like my mother and grandmother who teach lessons like, “Do to others what you have them do to you.” and “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” and “You draw more flies with honey than vinegar.” and more homemade expressions than I have space for…
Real Southerners are known for our hospitality. There’s always a place at our table and in our hearts for any of our fellow human beings.
Real southerners aren’t eaten up with an artificial pride over the embarrassing flag of the losing side of a terrible war… Real Southerners are proud of the flag that was birthed in Betsy Ross’s sewing basket, and has represented the ideal of “Liberty and Justice FOR ALL.”
Real Southerners realize that we still have progress to make on implementing liberty and justice for all Americans.
Real Southerners are listening.
Real Southerners are allies.
God Bless the USA, and have a wonderful Independence Day this weekend!
One of the most dramatic scenes in the gospel narrative is the account of “The Mount of Transfiguration.” It is a popular subject of both theologians and artists alike. Above is the painted dome of a church built atop modern day Mount Tabor in Israel, believed by many Christian archeologists to be the mountain referenced in Biblical text.
And here we see the same story captured by master painter of the Italian Renaissance, Raphael. What I find interesting about Raphael’s painting is the large crowd watching in shocked amazement, when we know in scriptural text that only the apostles Peter, James, and John actually witnessed the event.
I’m a bit of an amateur art enthusiast, so I did some digging into the opinions and writings of several art critics on the nature of the extended crowd in the lower portion of the painting, and I was fascinated with the meaning.
If you examine this lower region, beneath the scene of Jesus’s transfiguration and the three stunned apostles, you’ll find it to be a representation of what Raphael imagines to be happening elsewhere, simultaneously with Jesus’s other 9 disciples.
Matthew 17 contains the story of the transfiguration of Jesus, which takes up the first 13 verses of the chapter. In verse 14, Matthew switches to a different story, picking up immediately after Jesus, Peter, James, and John are coming down from the mountain. They find a boy oppressed by demons and stricken with seizures. The other 9 disciples had been trying to heal the boy, but were unable to do so without the presence of Jesus. Jesus immediately heals the boy, and rebukes his disciples for their faithlessness.
The lower region of the painting depicts the disciples trying and failing to heal this boy, and metaphorically reaching out towards the mountain to Jesus as the one true source of their power to accomplish kingdom work… And, that brings me to the point of this article.
The entire point of the story of the mount of transfiguration is the supremacy of Jesus compared to the law and the established religious system of his day.
This is demonstrated very intentionally when we examine the two heavenly witnesses that appear beside Jesus in the moment his glory was revealed. These two men serve as powerful symbols that wouldn’t have been lost on a Jewish audience: Moses the lawgiver, and Elijah the greatest of the Prophets. When Jesus stands conversing with these great men of the Judeo-Christian faith he is essentially proclaiming himself to be the ultimate fulfillment of all that is written in the Law and the Prophets, which is what the Jewish people called their scriptures: our Old Testament.
But we’re just getting to the best part…
Peter sees this incredible scene before him and he boldly speaks up, as Peter was known to do… He says, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (Matthew 17:4 ESV)
In his well meaning assertion, Peter makes Jesus a peer with Moses and Elijah. In essence he is saying, “Yes! This is perfect! We have Jesus AND we have the Law! We have Jesus AND we have tradition! Let’s make a tabernacle for each of them!”
God makes it pretty clear, pretty quickly that he is not cool with this idea…
“He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’” Matthew 17:5 ESV
I love that it notes “while he was still speaking.” God the Father basically interrupts Peter before he can dig himself in too deep, and surrounds the area with a bright cloud. This is another symbol that a Jewish audience would have immediately recognized as being symbolic of the presence of God, since it was the way He had manifested himself during the wilderness wanderings and over the ark of the covenant in the Tent of Meeting in the book of Exodus.
Notice that after God speaks, extolling his beloved Son, the disciples fall to the ground in abject terror. (God’s presence has been known to do that to people) But Jesus comes to his disciples, gently places a hand on their shoulder, and tells them not to be afraid… And I love this next verse:
“And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.” Matthew 17:8 ESV
Jesus only…
The Divine Trinity is explicitly clear on Mount Tabor… The pure doctrine of true Christianity is Jesus only. It isn’t Jesus plus the Law. It isn’t Jesus plus the prophets. It isn’t Jesus plus years of tradition. It isn’t Jesus plus the way Great-Great Grandma always used to do things… It is “Jesus only.”
When we attempt to add anything else to his work, we are behaving the exact same way as Peter, speaking in ignorance of something more magnificent than he could comprehend. When we instruct others and give our own traditions the same validity as the words of Jesus, we walk in the spirit of Pharisees who loved to add burdens of tradition to the teachings of the Jewish faith.
Live today in the shining, incomparable glory of Jesus, and let everything else melt away in the overwhelming magnificence of Jesus… Only Jesus.
As I write this my father is lying in a hospital bed as we pray for healing for bleeding in his brain. As I write this my nation is also bleeding from within as we go through the messy process of seeking justice and equity so that all Americans have a place at the table. The coalescing of these two realities has made me very thoughtful about the ideas of heritage and family legacy, and I want to say a few things about what I’ve learned to value in this dark time.
That picture above? That’s one of my distant ancestors. His name was General William Whipple (My mother’s maiden name). He fought with distinction in the Revolutionary War, and was a signor of the Declaration of Independence. I first became aware of this fact when researching my family history in college. I remember how proud I was to be a descendant of one of our nation’s founding fathers. You know all the guys you see enshrined in marble in DC? Yeah, I had the DNA of one of the marble dudes in my own veins. That’s pretty “star-spangled awesome” to an undergrad student just learning about ancestry…
Later, in my graduate school education, as I was studying genre fiction as a literature major, I came across a novel written by Octavia Butler. A woman, who is considered by many to be the pioneer of woman of color within the world of speculative fiction. I read through her novel, Kindred in the course of a couple weeks.
The basic plot of the novel involves a young, successful, professional black woman from the contemporary era being pulled back in time to the antebellum south and interacting with her ancestor, a white plantation owner who went on to father a child with one of his slaves that would also become one of her ancestors. As she travelled to different moments of Rufus’s life, she would sometimes be in his era of time for only moments, other times it was weeks or longer, where she would endure the treatment of a black woman in living in the south during the early 19th century.
I remember reading through scenes of violence, abuse, and rape. I remember weeping over that book. I remember feeling shame as I read through that book, even though I had never personally participated in any of those acts.
And then I did some more ancestral research… Yes, I was the proud descendent of a founding father… And I was also the descendant of plantation owners…
I struggled with loathing my own ancestry for a brief period of time. This was during a time in my life when I was working to raise money to combat human trafficking. How could I be taken seriously as a “modern day abolitionist” when I was descended from slave owners? Part of me wanted to find every friend of color I had, and hug them as tightly as I could weeping some form of apology. I still feel that way sometimes…
Today, as I spent time thinking about my father and his recovery, praying for him, and examining the kind of life he’s lived. I also thought about my grandfathers, they both live in Heaven now, and I began to think about my heritage again… And I began to do what Seth McGee does when he’s alone and thoughtful. I began to read. I began to research. I began to think.
And I think I finally made peace with my DNA…
Remember the guy at the top? General William Whipple? Yes, he was a revolutionary war hero, signor of the Declaration of Independence, even has his own Wikipedia page… And you know what else he was? He was one of the First founding fathers to espouse abolition ideology. William Whipple owned two slaves, and he freed both of them believing that “no man could fight for freedom and hold another in bondage.” His two former slaves fought at his side in the Revolutionary War as his equals, and he would later become one of the First founding fathers to write against slavery, and promote freedom for all Americans. (I guess the writer thing is just in my DNA?)
I’m not suggesting for a second that that would make up for him ever participating in slavery in the first place, but what it demonstrates to me is a desire to learn, change, and challenge the societal norms of his time. He wrote, “I hope it (emancipation) will be the means of dispensing the blessings of Freedom to all the human race in America.” He was willing to rock the boat. He was willing to advocate for change.
I think of the life of my grandfathers. They were truly great men, living in a not so great period in the South. They grew up in a segregated world, but I will always remember my grandfathers as men who rejected that system. My maternal grandfather lived in a part of Florida that had a high Hispanic immigrant population. A population that was often times marginalized and the butt of jokes. He spearheaded a place of worship for migrant workers and their families, and created a large Spanish church within the walls of the First Baptist Church of Okeechobee, Florida. Where others marginalized, he built bridges. He was willing to learn and to grow.
My own father as a young minister took his young family and moved into the inner city, and began a ministry that would be dedicated to the worth of the human soul, not the color of a person’s skin. When I think back on how my own father reached out to our community, I see a man who reached out a hand to everyone with equal love and concern. I grew up in a house where I wasn’t even really quite sure what racism was, until I got older and encountered it myself through the eyes of my friends. All I had known was an environment of love and acceptance, because that was the environment my parents worked hard to create.
And now the baton comes to me. I and my brother are the fourth consecutive generation in my family to choose lives devoted to ministerial service. As I think on the men and women who are represented in my genes I find that I, as many people find, am a mixture of ancestors to be proud of and ancestors to be ashamed of.
I am the descendant of Irish immigrants, seeking this country to pursue the American dream.
I am the descendent of an American Revolutionary War hero.
I am the descendant of plantation owners, who were part of one of the most shameful chapters of American history.
I am the descendant of a line of ministers who each stood on the shoulders of the previous one, and worked to unite their communities in shared brotherhood.
When I look at my family history now, from General William Whipple all the way to my own father, I see men who were flawed, but who were willing to learn, to grow, and to change.
I will follow in their footsteps, and continue to promote knowledge, growth, and change. I will continue to build on their work in a new century. I won’t stop until my ancestor’s dream of “Freedom to all the human race in America” is a reality.
Today I start my thirty-fourth journey around the sun… That just sounds a lot cooler than saying I’m cruising towards middle age, doesn’t it?
Today, I also witnessed my own father be admitted to the hospital with bleeding in his brain. Nothing like a loved one’s serious health issue combined with a birthday to make one wax philosophical on the nature of life… As I was driving home, deep in thought, I began musing on the lessons I’ve learned so far on my journeys on this earth, and this list started to take shape. I hope some of these little nuggets I’ve picked up along the way, help you in your own journey.
So here’s thirty-four things (in no specific order of importance) I learned on my way to age 34:
1. It may sound cliche, but family truly is everything. I’ve lived long enough to have friends, close friends, best friends… And I’ve lived long enough to experience betrayal. I’ve had friends move away, or grow apart, and through it all, I’ve always had my family to fall back on. If you’re a part of a loving, supportive family, like me. Take a moment and give thanks. It’s worth more than royal treasure.
2. Some family, you’re born with, some you choose. This in no way contradicts what I wrote above, but sometimes a friendship undergoes a special metamorphosis where the person becomes family even without DNA… Some of you reading this, are like that for me. You know who you are.
3. At the end of the day, people are attracted to confidence, so get comfortable in your own skin. Most of us will never make the cover of People, and that’s ok. Once you learn to love yourself, you’ll be surprised just how much you glow in the eyes of others as well.
4. The most real kind of wealth isn’t housed in bank accounts.
5. The most real kind of wisdom isn’t contained in the textbooks you read in school.
6. Life isn’t fair… And that’s kind of the point. Our souls weren’t made to exist forever in this world, and the imperfections here, draw our attention to what lies beyond.
7. Having a beautiful soul is much more important than flawless cheekbones and perfect muscle tone. You may be attracted to the latter, but you’ll only stay for the former.
8. There is no expiration date on human grief. I know when you lose someone dear to your heart, people will tell you that it gets better with time. So you’ll cry in private, you’ll fake a smile, you’ll press on even when it feels like you’ve ripped off your own arm, and the pain does become more bearable… And then you’ll find yourself years later crying for no reason at a bird feeder in your backyard, and question your own sanity. You are sane, my beautiful friend. You are human, and your grief is still legitimate even after years have passed.
9. There are few joys on this broken planet that compare to a perfectly crafted cup of tea. “But I don’t like hot tea, Seth.” Nonsense… You’ve just never tasted mine…
10. You can tell a lot by a person by how they treat small children and old people. You know, people who can’t do anything for them in return.
11. Real Christianity isn’t defined by how many Bible verses you can recite from memory, how many times you go to church, or how many things are on your list of “don’ts.” It’s a real relationship with a real person that affects every other relationship in your life.
12. Real Christianity is, unfortunately, seldom practiced in this world.
13. Life is better with a cat. Period.
14. Life at its lengthiest is short. Eat the dang chocolate.
15. Everybody talks about living well, laughing often, dancing in the rain and such (seriously why do white people hang this stuff all over their walls?) But people will still think you’re eccentric if you ACTUALLY do those things… Do them anyway.
16. The human body functions better when it’s hydrated, and consumed some protein. Feeling depressed? Put some fuel in your tank, fam.
17. Everyone has quirks. Everyone has a fandom, even though only a few of us use that term. Life is hard, and we all deserve our hobbies and interests to get through. Don’t let people shame yours. Are you into Sci-Fi movies? Live long and prosper. Christmas Crazy? Binge those Hallmark movies, without shame. Video games? Game on, fam! Arts and Crafts? I wouldn’t mind a new scarf… Whatever makes your journey more healthy, meaningful, and enjoyable, YOU DO YOU BOO.
18. Pay attention to how people interact with animals. This reveals a lot about a person’s heart. Pay special attention to people who animals are drawn to. Animals don’t put on pretenses like humans.
19. Toxic masculinity is, unfortunately, the norm in our world. Real men cry. Real men care about others. Real men respect women as intellectual equals.
20. Humans differ in how tall their bodies are, how many fat cells we carry around, and how much melanin is in our skin, but human hearts are basically all the same. At the end of the day, we all want to feel safe, loved, and accepted.
21. Your mom was right… It really doesn’t matter what other people think…
22. Actually your mom was right about more things than you’ll feel comfortable admitting. And you’ll find yourself quoting her at times without meaning to…
23. Sitting around a dinner table with people you truly love is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Don’t only do it on Thanksgiving.
24. If you’re struggling with depression or any type of mental condition, PLEASE do NOT be ashamed to talk about it or ask for help. The fact that people feel a stigma about this is ridiculous. Most of us have dealt with some form of depression or anxiety in this day, and you’re welcome in my circle, anytime… no fake happy face required.
25. Reading is the deadliest weapon against ignorance. Read broadly. Read authors that challenge your worldview. Read everything you can get your hands on.
26. We are all born storytellers and artists, but only a few of us persist into adulthood, but the truth is that these things are a necessary part of the human experience and healing for the soul.
27. It’s better to attempt something huge and not fully succeed than to be too afraid to try. You’ll still gain experience and knowledge even if you don’t fully achieve the big goal, and you’ll be surprised how often you do.
28. Independent thinkers are often perceived as a threat… Think for yourself anyway…
29. When you focus on positivity you’ll typically find your life to be full of positive things. The opposite is also true.
30. We tend to make our biggest mistakes when we rush. There is no set “right age” for any life achievement.
31. Life isn’t just the weekends, holidays, and vacations. The “mundane” parts are a part of your life too. Finding joy in every moment is a worthwhile goal for all of us.
32. Most of us are in, fact, “making it up as we go,” some of us are just more honest about it.
33. Just because there are some incapable of seeing your worth, doesn’t mean that your actual value decreases in the slightest.
The past several weeks have been an incredibly trying time for all of us as Americans. We have had live, unbroken coverage of the unraveling of a nation that has historically been defined by the ideal of “E Pluribus Unum” which means, “Out of many, one.” Though this has been the very motto of our nation, and printed on all of our currency, the execution of such a lofty ideal seems to have always eluded us. Especially for our female citizens, citizens of color, and those facing socio-economic challenges.
One week ago, we witnessed a horrific act of hate and murder. To label it anything but that is an insult to not only the black community, but to all of us who hold sacred the value of every individual human life. The eyes of our nation became fixed on the Twin Cities as we collectively mourned and cried out for justice against a flagrant crime against humanity.
In the coming days we would begin to open dialogue that could at times be uncomfortable and at other times downright painful. Systemic racism and how to dismantle it is a monumental topic to broach when not everyone at the discussion table even believes there is a problem to address. Still there were those of us willing to engage in conversation, to share stories, and to listen. The importance of listening really cannot be understated.
There are so many of you who have engaged in this discussion with me, and they have been some of the most honest, respectful conversations I have ever been a part of on social media. I walked away from each of those dialogues filled with love, respect, and a determination to use whatever voice and platform I may have to call out for justice.
However, as the days progressed, the media attention began to focus less on peaceful protests, prayer vigils, and open dialogue. TV screens began to be filled with burning buildings, injured civilians, and American cities that resembled active war zones.
I noticed the tone on social media begin to shift rapidly, a powerful line began to be drawn in the digital sand. There were still those of us interested in seeking justice and genuine reform for a broken system, but our voices seemed to be drowned out by a deafening chorus of voices that seemed more focused on the looters, rioters, and criminals and either condemning or validating their acts as being justified against a corrupt system. This brings me to the title and heart of this article.
The dictionary defines the word “dichotomy” as “a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.”
Believing that George Floyd’s murderer should be held accountable for his heinous crime does not make me “Anti-Police.” To be clear, some of the finest human beings I know wear a shield. Some of them work at my school. These men and women are real life superheroes.
Believing that violent riots, looting, arson, and acts of domestic terrorism are ethically and civilly wrong does not mean that I have wavered in my solidarity with my friends and students of color. To be clear, Target’s bottom line isn’t on my radar of concerns right now. The preservation of human lives, livelihoods, and family homes is.
Those on social media who are summing up complex issues of social justice with one sentence memes featuring their idealogical straw man of choice attempt to force you into a false dichotomy. I reject that.
In my house, #BlackLivesMatter. In my house #WeSupportBlueFamily. In my house we cry out for #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd. In my house we still believe in #OneNationUnderGod. In my house #LoveWins.
A joyous and happy Feast of the Ascension for all of my fellow church calendar fans! Although this isn’t a holiday typically celebrated by many Protestants, it can be a very meaningful celebration for all of the disciples of Jesus.
What is Ascension Day or The Feast of the Ascension?
This holiday celebrates one of Christianity’s core beliefs: that Jesus bodily ascended back into heaven forty days following his resurrection. To commemorate this, Ascension Day is always celebrated exactly 40 days after Easter Sunday, which always places it on a Thursday, which is why it is called “Holy Thursday” in some regions.
But, if Ascension Day wasn’t a part of my faith heritage growing up, and I’m not liturgical, then why should I care?
While none of us are compelled by Biblical mandate to celebrate ANY calendar day as more sacred than another (The Apostle Paul makes this clear in Romans 14:5-6, when discussing Christian liberty), it can be incredibly helpful, as believers, to have certain observances dedicated to the remembrance and celebration of specific aspects of our faith.
The children of Israel practiced this principle in the Old Testament with the practice of erecting “Memorial Stones.”
You can find an account of this practice in the 4th chapter of the book of Joshua. After our titular prophet leads the children of Israel across the Jordan river (interestingly a symbol of death in later works of Christian art and poetry) God commands Joshua to take 12 stones out of the river and to create a monument of sorts for the express purpose of keeping the memory of the event alive in the minds of future generations.
For those of us alive today, many of the holidays and celebrations of the traditional church calendar are intended to be interactive monuments that allow us to not only call to memory the foundational narratives of our faith, but to become a part of them through celebration and ancient tradition.
In the “unprecedented times” (Am I the only one growing weary of that phrase?) that we live, it becomes all the more important for those of us who follow Jesus to soak in the meaning of what today symbolizes: This world isn’t all that there is.
Let’s close with the words of an angel, spoken on this day over two millennia ago to a distressed group of disciples straining their necks to look at the sky:
“As they stared into the sky, watching Jesus ascend, two men in white robes suddenly appeared beside them. They told the startled disciples, ‘Galileans, why are you staring up into the sky? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but he will come back the same way that you saw him ascend.’” Acts 1:10-11 TPT
Walking in the “footsteps of Jesus” is a phrase that has been repeated so frequently in Christian culture that is in danger of becoming a cliché. There’s a famous poem, an old hymn, and countless pieces of Christian art that all capture an image similar to the one above.
The danger of such familiarity with a scriptural concept is a loss of original textual intent. Today, during a moment of quiet meditation, I came across one of the key passages of scripture that inspires the idea of walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Here it is below in an English translation (The ESV) that I, and many scholars much greater than myself, believes best echoes the original Greek text:
And just for a second glance, here’s how the verse appears in the Passion Translation of the Bible, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite translations of the Bible in contemporary English:
Following in the “footsteps of Jesus” is a beautiful artistic image, to be sure, but how would his followers living in the 21st century, emulate the walk of a divine being in a practical, attainable way? Let’s look at the verse one more time. This time in the NIV translation:
Living our lives as Jesus lives his is a daunting task to say the very least. This is the man who laid his hands on society’s outcasts and disease fled from their bodies. This is the man who could bend the forces of nature to the power of his word: walking across water, quieting tempestuous storms, causing matter itself to multiply or transmute at a command when he multiplied the loaves and fishes or changed the water into wine. Death itself had to yield to his authority.
Not to mention that he ALWAYS knew exactly the right words for any given situation…
How could ANY of us ever live up to an example like that?
But the surprising answer to that question comes in another passage of scripture, written by the same apostle as our “footprints of Jesus” verse:
Those are written in red letters in the original text, by the way. For those of us who have been following Jesus for a long time that’s usually an indication that we should really take notes here, since these words are a direct quote of something Jesus said during his time on Earth.
If Jesus, himself, believes you are capable of living the kind of life that he lived, and doing “even greater things,” then who are you to disagree with him, dear reader?
“But how could anything I do in my life, be classified as ‘even greater works,’ than someone like Jesus?”
Consider this for a moment. The historical figure of Jesus lived a rather short life by our modern standards. He lived only 33 years on this planet, and spent only 3 of those years in full-time ministry. During those three years he taught, he helped, and he showed us in a perfect way what a life totally yielded to the will of the Father looks like.
Most of us, with today’s medicine, will be given the opportunity to live much longer than 33 years (I myself will cross that threshold into my 34th year in just a few weeks), and will have an opportunity to teach, and help, and work for God’s kingdom for much, much longer than 3 years.
Jesus didn’t waste a moment of his 3 years, and literally changed the course of human history in that time. What might you accomplish with 20, 30, or 40+ years of time dedicated to selflessly serving others in God’s kingdom?
What does God want you to do specifically during your years? That’s a question every living soul grapples with, and the answers are as varied and unique as the people God creates. It’s the kind of question that causes would-be philosophers, like myself, to ponder and meditate for years.
It’s a topic I hope we can use this blog to consider in continued meaningful discussion. But let’s close for today with some general thoughts about living in God’s kingdom that apply to all of us:
Trying to master just that single verse would take us a lifetime… I just bet that as we all work towards justice, kindness, and intimate relationship with God, he’ll give more specific details along “the walk.”
Ponder Thoughts 