Welcome to another podcast of Struggling Well. We're glad that you're with us. And today, Jimmy's got some thoughts that have been heavy on his heart, things that God is stirring in him. So, Jimmy, why don't you share with us what's going on?
Yeah. thank you. It's a familiar story. At least it is to me. and yet I think I overlooked some pieces of it. So, let me back it up by saying we have a summer reading requirement for faculty and staff at Charlotte Christian, and we're reading a book written by Philip Yansy called The Bible Jesus. read basically the Old Testament. And one of the places that he kind of lands in this book is on the story of the Exodus as it's told in Deuteronomy. and Moses is leading the children of Israel up right up to the promised land. and I don't think I ever stopped to think about this until I read it in his book. Moses was years older than everybody there because they had wandered in the desert for 4 40 years until that generation that came out of the Exodus that came out of Egypt had died off. So you've got to have them wandering for 40 years. So now the age gap between Moses and the people he's addressing at the end of the journey is huge. I mean it's he Moses is in his hundreds and these are the newest generation of people. They didn't come out of the Exodus with the exception of Joshua. and Caleb, they weren't part of that exodus, that original leaving of Israel. And so Moses is now in his final talk to them and what's he say? What's important? What does he want to communicate to these people? And it's a long address in Deuteronomy 32-34. But what struck me was this in the 32nd chapter, Moses says, "Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your fathers and he will show you your elders and they will tell you. Remember the whole idea that you don't want to forget what God has done. But then later, a few verses later, he says, "You were unmindful of the rock, meaning God, that bore you and you forgot the God who gave you birth." And it's that sense of remembering so that we don't forget. and that's the very final things that wrapped into what he wanted to leave this group of people cuz he wasn't going to be allowed to go into the promised land. Joshua is going to take them. They're they are just a short time from crossing the Jordan and winning the victory in Jericho. But then we know the history of Israel. They tend to forget which is probably a lot like we are. We tend to forget.
You know, you think back about places where you could say, "Yes, God really I see God's hand here. He did this here." And yet when we come to another circumstance, we forget what he's done
and we get all anxious and worried and wonder if God is going to show up. And I think that's there's some benefit of looking back not to make life like it was in the past, but to look back and see where God has been, who he says he is, faithful, provider, you know, caring for his children the way he has before in your life. So when we come to a new circumstance, God has not changed. But Israel did it. They struggled and we do too.
Yeah. I think you're absolutely right, Suzi. When we say look back, it's not so that I can go, "Oh, the good old days."
No,
it's looking back to see the God who was there then, who still is there with me today. And of course, in that crossing over the Jordan was the whole point where they or the whole place where they would pile up stones of remembrance, rocks of remembrance, so that when your children come by, this place and they say, "Hey, mom, dad, what are those rocks there for?" You could say, "That's where God did this or that's where God did that.", and again, I don't know that you have to physically put rocks of remembrance around. Some people do.
Yeah.
but it's the idea that when I look back on my life, can I see the places where God showed up in ways that I never thought he would? Maybe he didn't necessarily take me out of the hard place, but he got me through that hard place. For some reason, what pops in my mind is when you talked about how the generation was younger that Moses was leading right before the crossing of the Jordan.
so as parents and grandparents and what aunts and uncles as their people below you, kids below you, what kind of remembrance do they see in you when they when you all are in a hard place again? Do they Help me here. I'm ch
Well, do they see you panicking?
Yes. Yes.
Or do they see you believing that God is going to work? That he's telling a bigger story than you are and you're going to fit into that story he's telling? And it may not be it may not take you down a path that you want to go down, but he is still in control and he's still working and he still is God.
Yeah, I think that's important. The generational thing
to pass down. you know, we're grandparents. We have eight grandkids and our ability to speak into their lives is different than when we were parents,
right?
I think it's easier on one hand to be a grandparent because I'm you know I'm not worried about my grandkids in the same way that my kids are worried about them and that was true of us when we were had when we were young parents. But we have this responsibility to not just speak the truth but to live out what it looks like to follow Christ, believe that God is sovereign over all and that the spirit of God is alive and well inside of us. We have that responsibility to pass that truth on.
Yeah. And I and as you say that, Suzi, what popped into my mind was an event years ago now, 2014, when my dad was coming to the end of his life. And my dad who was somebody who taught me to love the word of God. He walked with God at least all of my life, I remember, and that probably before that. and he was lying in the hospital room and he had stopped speaking really and I remember for me it was I don't call it a crisis of faith but I remember looking at the bed looking at dad and saying dad is it all true
and he didn't answer but I could but I had to ask that question of somebody who had gone before me somebody who had experienced things I hadn't experienced and I wanted to know is it all true and I wonder for those people in the desert back then They hadn't come out of Egypt. They had been born in the desert. And here's this old man, a revered figure, but still he's an old man. And I wonder if there were people there who were like, "Is it really true?"
Mhm.
And he says to them, "Remember, because you forget."
Yeah.
And so, I just really believe that for us to think at times, to pause long enough to look back and go, I remember when God was faithful here, was faithful here, was faithful here, and that then causes me not to forget him in the midst of whatever I'm going through now.
I think that's really good stuff, babe. Thank you all so much for listening to us. And just keep listening. And if you would be so inclined, share with your friends. And I'm just going to put in a plug for Jimmy's book, Struggling Well with Life, which is available on Amazon. we have been so touched by people's responses to his book. a couple of Sunday school classes that are studying it this summer. people that have requested it and want to see what God has for them in the midst of their struggle. So, thanks once again for being with us and we'll talk to you next week.