Progressive Tension: Remembering and Striving

On my run this morning a song came on with this line, "If you let go then that's where time will stand." It got me thinking; thinking about how true this statement was. We all have memories, we all have been through multiple transformations in our lives, and yet there are those precious few memories that have been truly formational moments. Memories bring us to a place that only we know, or have shared with a few people. They are deeply personal and fiercely emotional. Some of us had our greatest memories in grade school: winning the kickball game, getting the lead role, scoring the winning goal, basket or touchdown. Some of us had our greatest memories in college: enjoying new found freedoms and minimal responsibility, parties, groups, relationships. Some of us have had career success or academic prestige. Moments define us, but if we stop the progression that got us to those moments, then time stands still in those moments and now life is not about the present or future, it's about the "glory days."

Memories have given us structure. In reference to the grand narrative of the bible, it is imperative to re"member" that story, allowing it to penetrate us and work through us so that we can live it out and participate in it. However, we aren't ancient Israel, we never will be. We aren't the church of Acts 2, though we aspire to be guided by that community. We can't live in an ideal, we can't live in the past without making it an idol. Idols have a way of replacing true worship with a physical imitation presence of one to be worshiped. If we only search for God in scripture, our bibles become idols. If we only expect to worship God in our churches, then we have missed Jesus's point of discipling everyone and going everywhere. If we only look for God in humanitarian projects, then we will take away a God created in our own image. Tension allows us to remember the past, be an embodiment of God in the present, and look forward to glorious hope in the future - without ideals, without idolizing our best memories, but by seeking God in the tension. By searching and knowing the scriptures, by participating in our communities of redemption, and by showing our local and global world that we do not fit into a judgmental-stereotypical mold of a shell, but are living, embodied beings created in the image of God.

I don't want my best days to be in the past. I don't want to catch my saying, "it was so much better when...," I want to be present to the people I spend life with, I want to be respectful of the defining moments in my life, and I want to have the faith to believe in the things I do not yet see. Peace be with you.