His Story - Our Stories (1-31-2021)

His Story, Our Stories 1-31-21 Beginning Scripture: Psalm 80:3 Turn us again to yourself, O God. Look down on us in joy and love; only then shall we be saved. Our Sunday School lesson, based on Psalm 78, begins with the statement that history's a great teacher and encourages us to study the lessons of the past in general and in the Bible in particular. (p.58) This Psalm recounts some of the history of Jehovah's glorious deeds and wondrous miracles among his people, and accuses Israel of forgetting him and his wonders. I got to thinking about all the miracles of creation and how I, like Israel, fail to even notice them and I take them for granted. I do not notice how God's story intersects with mine from the moment I get out of bed, walk my body to the restroom, and turn on running water. The miracle of the human body, all of its parts working together to make walking possible. I take for granted the wonder of water gathered from lakes and beneath the ground and brought into my home. One of the "advantages" of old age is the way my body speaks to me with knee and back aches that remind me not to take for granted this body and its ability to walk. It is easy to read this Psalm and see it as ancient history rather than God's story for me today. Do I, like Israel forget the wonders God works and has wrought in my walk, both my physical and my spiritual walk? My parents told me parts of their stories, showed me pictures of them on the beaches of Galveston with my aunt and uncle. My uncle Melvin told me of hearing Fat's Domino in a dance hall in Louisiana, and dancing to the music with my parents. And I witnessed the unfolding of the story of Dad's conversion and baptism in our church in Pasadena, Texas, how daddy became a leader in our church and played golf with the pastor. Without realizing it, I was witnessing the way God's story intertwined with theirs. Their stories and God's got into my system. Without noticing it God planted the seed of his love in me and worked Jesus Christ into my consciousness. I did not just magically become a Christian all at once. It happened in the long flowering of God's story in my parent's lives and in the community of Pasadena, Texas where we lived. Other Christians taught me that story in thousands of ways from my birth to my adulthood. But I hardly thought about that long and laborious teaching and learning process until last week as I was thinking about and writing this devotional and reading Psalm 78. When we see our Bibles on the tables in our living rooms do we take for granted the dusty roads of Palestine where Jesus walked, Paul's journey from Judaism into relationship with Jesus Christ on the roads to Damascus, Ephesus, Rome, and Corinth? Thank God for my parents, the Christian teachers back in Pasadena, for our pastor here who each Sunday of each week launches into our minds the stories of the intersection of God's work in our lives. Oh how we take walking for granted! I do not often think of the way God steps into my life every day in plants, trees and animals. God's story unfolds in the waving of the sage bush in my back yard and in the wonders of our glorious, tortured planet. But if I do not take time to communicate with God in prayer, meditation, music, and Scripture, I simply will not notice his story in mine. His story, the history of God placing his hand upon us unfolds every day in our walk upon this planet, as we step into the lives of our loved ones and strangers each passing minute of each day. For me, the lesson of Psalm 78 is that we should notice God in the steps we take, in our walk during the day. At the end of this day, if we were to describe what we did today, could we say how God was there, would he be part of the story of our day and night? Do we take for granted that God is present in our sleep, in the dreams where we travel to strange lands or up difficult climbs? But let us lose lots of sleep or go without sleep or with little sleep for days, then we might exclaim, "Oh God where are you?" And what would God say to us if we shouted this to him? What do you think? What would God say about his presence in our walking down the hallway from the bedroom to the kitchen in the morning upon our awakening. Would he say, "Wake up, you" "Wake up to me in your walk, in each step you take?" Maybe the point of Psalm 78 is to wake us up. Listen to these verses which follow a description of the things God had given his people from the moment they left Egypt through their long walk in the wilderness providing manna and thousands of birds for them to eat and yet they complained and refused to see these, HIS miracles, to see that it was his Spirit that rushed upon them in those birds. Verse 31 tells of God's anger with their blindness, forgetfulness, and lack of faithfulness to him. It recounts how he killed the finest of Israel's young men to teach his people a lesson. And listen to Psalm 78: 34-38. "34 Then at last, when he had ruined them, they walked awhile behind him; how earnestly they turned around and followed him! 35 Then they remembered that God was their Rock-that their Savior was the God above all gods. 36 But it was only with their words that they followed him, not with their hearts; 37 their hearts were far away. They did not keep their promises. Is God not telling us to wake up when he says in the Psalm that the Israelites followed him only with their words and not with their hearts? Is not my heart far away as I walk down that hallway thinking only about what I am going to fix for breakfast? All too often I am paying more attention to the messages from my stomach rather than what God wants for me. My heart for God is too often far away and I forget my promise to surrender my whole life to him, every step I take. But you say, well, Glenn I can't be thinking of God every step I take. Yes, I know, but how often do I think about God during the day? Is it only in the morning and at night before retiring, when I pray, write, and meditate? What are the chances that he enters my mind mid-morning when I am all taken up in my busyness? I'd really rather not answer that question. But I have to admit, I do not notice how my story is really his-story, the history of God in my life. I want to end with verses 38 and 39 of Psalm 78: 38 Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and didn't destroy them all. Many and many a time he held back his anger. 39 For he remembered that they were merely mortal men, gone in a moment like a breath of wind. So, finally I want to say how grateful I am that God forgives me for my forgetfulness, for not noticing him and his finger in the pie of my personal story. Challenges for us * Today and this week notice how God has his finger in the pie of your story. If necessary, schedule times during the day to remind you to notice God's action - in your body, your home, your family, your church, your friends, our society, our world. State this action out loud to someone else or to yourself and thank him for it. * Thank someone for being God's hand in your life or in something that has happened in your life. * Thank our pastor for his knowledge and teaching, for passing on God's story, tell him or write him a description of something he has taught you that helped you in your walk. Prayer Father Creator of me and the universe, thank you for all the many little things that I take for granted that are ultimately the work of your hands. Thank you for sending your Son to us to teach us your ways, to show us your way, to light our path and our walk throughout our days and our lives. Father God guide our new President and his administration and teach them your ways, help them to see and support your action this year and for the next four years. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ our precious Lord and Savior. Amen.