Learning the lessons of history

"He who marries the spirit of the age will soon become a widower." (Dean Inge of St. Paul's Cathedral)

I am by nature a reactionary person. That is to say I define what I am for by pointing out what I am against, often throwing the baby out with the bathwater if I find even the smallest offence. Anyone who has read this pithy page will already know this for themselves. I think many of us, if not all of us, can behave in this way. We know where we belong by stating where we don't. The problem here is that once we have started down this road it can be hard to know where to stop.

History is replete with movements which are defined in contrast to the preceding movement. Think of the transition from modern to postmodern for a simple example, although I am sure you can think of many more. This goes all the way down in our society too and has even infected some of our churches and I sense we will be in danger of becoming bitter people and a bitter church if we don't learn to celebrate what is different from us and what has come before us. A great deal of wisdom and introspection is needed before we are to 'critique' someone else's way of doing things and it is often sadly lacking (Matt 7.3-5). Of course we have to be able to stand up against injustice when the situation calls for it, but I'm talking about something different as I hope you can appreciate.

As I have said before here, unless we are able to love and forgive our parents/church/boss/spouse/siblings etc we are doomed to repeat their mistakes. Moreover, we have to learn to love those who choose to do things in a different way to us, even if we can't understand why they would do such a thing! A failure to do this will end in disaster and isolation. Isolation from the blessing that God is busy offering elsewhere to those that will 'bless what He is doing' regardless of how uncool, ugly and stupid it may appear. How tragic! When Paul would have us 'building one another up in love', we revert to the opposite.

We need to be careful that we don't take our deconstruction too far, lest we find ourselves sitting alone surrounded by the pile of rubble we have created.