Oscillating Narratives

Introduction

Researcher Duke Marshall has written extensively about our propensity to live in ascending or descending narratives.

Ascending narrative: Up and to the left. Remember when Lebron James went to the heat and he was joining Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch and the big three. They had like a pep rally for them....it was weird. And he said “we are not going to just win 1, not two, not three, not four, not five.....” ect. 7 titles. He won 2, lost 2 more there.

Ascending narrative

Descending narrative:

“It was better when”

“When so and so was president.”

Everything was great until I lost my job, or cancer or whatever.”

GMC is ascending narrative, UMC is descending.

For others this is reversed.

FMC has lived in these before. Descending narrative....ever since the Bill Taylor fall out, or there seems there was a bit of ascending narrative cast leading into the pandemic and disillusion when things did not take off the way we thought.

After the vote last month....telling ourselves both of these narratives.

Duke Marshall’s research found was that people were most resilient and able to persevere more is when they embrace the reality that life is not always up and not always down.

He calls it oscillating narratives.

(The only time I have used oscillating was to these fans)

This is facing the reality that things will be good and bad. Things will experience flourishing, but there will also be loss and disappointment. Example:

Oscillating narrative:

John 16:33 NIV

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Because when clear on this reality, you might begin to choose who you will be in the midst of the oscillation.

I chose the Isaiah’s text because it is full of this oscillation but there is something extremely poignant right in the middle of it.

The first 7 verses are all about the destruction that the people of God have faced and are facing because the people of God have strayed from God. But then there is this turn in verse 7 with one word. Yet....

Isaiah 64:7–8 NIV

7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. 8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

“Throwing Clay”

this is a rough and labor intensive process. The pressure here on the clay creates a work of art.

Listen, I do not believe God allowed a pandemic or church voting or hardship that we face to teach us a lesson.

So the question is will you in the future have clear eyes enough to see God’s hand at work in the middle of it all?

Those that believe that they are the work of God’s hand and that God is present in the middle of life, I believe hold some realities in the midst of good and bad:

1. Security: Trusting that God’s presence is right in the middle of it all

For those in Christ, there is an assurance, a peace that is tied directly to his presence. In the upper room, we see this the best. Jesus shows up and says multiple times....peace. Describe the scene.

2. Identity: Who we are is not determined by external circumstances

We will have decisions to make. We have action that is needed. But our identity as a church is more determined by our faithfulness to Christ. Our commitment to the mission and vision, than it will be about postables and income and expenses, and attendance. Or what people are saying about us outside.

3. Purpose: We are to be a work of God’s hand in the world

To be a work of art. To be a reflection of God.