Wondering, Wandering, and Writing

These words can sting.  They can cut straight through your heart.  But, sometimes, they are just the push you need to begin healing.  If we stay mired in our past hurts, it is really difficult to grow where we’re planted now, much less flourish in any area of life.  Children can be great at moving on.  They can have an intense argument over a toy or which game to play and five minutes later be involved in a completely different activity and having a great time.  On the other hand, many adults avoid certain people because, “I just can NOT listen to that story AGAIN!” I’ve done it.  You have probably done it.  I have been that person telling the same sad story.  Maybe you have, too.  

Telling our story is part of our coping mechanism.  Sharing our journey is part of how we heal. Some folks can tell it once – or not at all – and get on with life and be just fine.  Others of us need to know that someone cares that we hurt.  The event was painful then and the dull ache, with no warning whatsoever, will erupt in tears or anger or despair. We try to move on but the past keeps weighing us down.

But … is remembering all bad?

I had been in church for decades before I ever heard a pastor question the theology of the songs we sang.  As it turns out, that’s a good thing to do.  I also learned that for generations we have sang songs without knowing what we were saying. In the familiar “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” is the line “here I raise my Ebenezer.”  What’s an Ebenezer?  According to the Mirriam-Webster dictionary, it is a commemoration of a divine intervention.  In I Samuel 6 and 7 is the story of a clash between the Israelites and Philistines. Just before the battle, God confused the Philistines and Israel was easily victorious. “Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer (which means “the stone of help”), for he said, “Up to this point the Lord has helped us!”” (I Samuel 7:12 NLT)

How has the Lord helped you up to this point?  What is your Ebenezer?  Traditionally it is a stone.  Essentially it is something to remind you that God has helped you up to this point.  Knowing God has helped you to this point is encouragement that he will help you through the next struggles, too.  Your Ebenezer may be a journal you keep of prayer requests AND answers.  It may be a ring, symbolizing the love and all the craziness and joy of sharing lives.  It may be an urn of ashes on the mantle and you still get up, get dressed, and get through each day.  It may be a picture of you on a trail because you can again walk up a hill.  It may be a degree hanging on the wall.  It may be a hand-drawn picture held to the refrigerator by a magnet. 

If you don’t have one, find your Ebenezer. Forgetting is not the key to moving on.  Remembering the joys and cherishing how God carried us through the trials will help us get through the uncertainties of the future.

#bgwww21