(Photo credit: OldOnliner)
Have you ever opened up a desk drawer and promptly closed it because it was just too messy to deal with.
Some of us have chapters of our lives that we wish weren’t part of our history. There is abundant counsel and books that go to great lengths to help us “deal with it.” The problem is that there seems to be so little to deal with. For me, when I look back at those years, when I survey the landscape, all I see is rubble.
It’s a tangled, twisted mess . Worse of all, I can’t change history, especially the actions of others. I’m not alone in dealing with yesterday. I bet there are days, or months, or years you wish you could just rip the pages out of the calendar of time and throw them away. But you can’t.
There’s an African concept called Sankofa. If your village burns down, you go back to it and pick through the rubble, rescuing what you can. You then leave, simple possessions in hand, to your new home. “It’s not wrong to go back for that what you’ve forgotten”.
There’s an acknowledgement of trial and tragedy, and a simple thankfulness for what still remains.
Going back is problematic, because I do have to face certain truths about others – and myself. But within that rubble of relationship and circumstance are some diamonds, some precious things that survived the heat and the flame. There are things that cannot be destroyed that can go with me.
When I focus on the circumstance, it’s all too easy to play the victim, to rub the soot on my face and wait for others to give a little pity. But By doing so, I drag them, unwittingly, to the ruins, to the scene of the crime.
So I have a few precious things that I have recovered, memories that I cherish.
And I have a Rock that survived the flame. In my new home, I select an even spot on the ground and place it, tamping it down so it doesn’t move. I then find another rock to stack. And then another.
We draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it — Lyndon Johnson
But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,” Phillipians 3:13
Please, share with a friend if you feel moved.
Read all past issues at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidrupert
Read all past issues at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidrupert
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