Well, here I am continuing the story. In Part One, I wrote about God's good CREATION. And You and I are beautiful people whom God created. And no matter how much part two of the story (CRISIS) gets into the mix there is always a mark of that beauty within us that God continues to encourage us to live out. In other words part three is about CALLING.
Although the theme of calling is all throughout scripture we are going to stay in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. In chapter 12 God calls a man to leave his current identity to become the father of the nation and people whom God wants to bless to be blessing.
Imagine, God comes to you and says leave everything you have known. Leave your family. Leave your homeland. Leave the security of your current way of life. Leave your occupation and go to the place I will show you. Well, this is just about what God does to Abram. (See Genesis 12:1-3, you may want to open it in a new window).
What is most interesting about this passage is God's promise to Abram. God says, "Abram, you do this--leave your family--and I will do this." Notice what God is going to do for Abram. Abram a childless man at the time... Abram I will make you a great nation, I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing... in fact, I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through."
Notice the catch phrases... Great Nation, Bless You, Your Name Great, You will be a blessing, all on earth will be blessed through you.
GREAT NATION, YOUR NAME GREAT
In our minds we usually think of some powerful nation that other nations fear, but imagine a people group who are great because they are great people. Who is a great person? What makes a person great? What do you think characterizes a great person, a great nation? Hmmm, I suppose it would be someone (or a group of someone's) who really cared and really accomplished great things for others. I think they are the kind of people that people would want to be around, why? because they are the kinds of people that would find ways to lift you up, they would believe in you, they would believe that there is still hope (think Luke Skywalker for his father, 'I know there is still good in you').
Blessing is a powerful word in scripture. It's means more than I can tell you in a single blog, but here is a small gist... I once heard it described this way... pretend you are a sailor and you depend on the wind to move your ship... imagine that the wind is against you or there is no wind at all, this can be problematic... blessing is when the wind is at your back propelling you forward towards goodness and a successful journey. And God tells Abram I will bless, but not only will I bless you but you will be a blessing... you will put wind in other peoples sails, you will propel them on towards goodness and successful journeys. In fact, this will be so abundantly true that all people, all over creation will be blessed through you.
Wow!
Now lets put both together... God calls Abram and his descendants towards Greatness and that greatness is surrounded by blessing. But it is not blessing for blessings sake, it is blessing for blessing others' sake. In other words, God is forming, calling a people who would some how reverse the cycle of pain caused by the crisis part of the story.
Some of you picked up on the part about God cursing those who curse Abram and/or his descendants. At first look we think God is vengeful, crass and crude, but let us think a little deeper. Imagine this people who have God's wind in their sails, meaning that they are going and are living life God's way and are being a blessing to all the people they come in contact with... Then, imagine with me the kind of people who would be against that, they would be essentially crass and crude causing harm not blessing, damaging God's creation, abusing people and animals and land, this people would have the 'breath' of God against them... They're not going God's way, God's wind/breath cannot be backing their sails. They are going against the flow of God's good creation and that is a curse to any one near them.
In other words, in the midst of crisis, God calls a people to be Great by being a blessing. And anyone can join this family of God-followers by simply turning the sail. And the change makes a world of difference. But what's also neat about this... the things that you have done, in the past, that have entered into the realm of greatness and have blessed others they're not discounted. No, it's included in the blessing, and the places where we have been part of the cursing--the damaging of God's good creation, these are mysteriously left behind as we move forward with God's breath filling our sails and propelling us forward towards true greatness and blessing to be a blessing.
...As much as I love this part of the story, were are not at the end of the journey yet. We can look at scripture and tell that humanity has continued to suffer from the crisis... we can look at christianity and see places where we have been more a part of the cursing than the blessing, but I encourage you to hang in there... the plot thickens. And the craziest thing about the whole thing is we make a difference in this story. This is strangely our story. Come back next time for Part IV: The ongoing CONVERSATION between God and people.
