A few years ago, I discovered the PBS television series “Finding Your Roots.” Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the show that helps influential people explore their ancestry through genealogical research and genetic testing. Surprising, sometimes even disturbing, facts about a family’s past are discovered. At times this experience produces almost spiritual moments for the people involved as who they are, what they think, and how they feel comes to make more sense. It’s like long lost pieces of a puzzle suddenly falling into place.  

We may not ever be asked to appear on “Finding Your Roots,” but we all are a people with a past. Maybe you, or someone else has explored your family’s history. If so, I’m guessing you may have happened on something that made you wonder a bit as well. Our history often helps define who we are and who we may become. And that’s true for your past with God. 

No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, you have a past with God. Sometimes courageous… sometimes not; sometimes obedient… sometimes not; sometimes close… sometimes not; sometimes trusting… sometimes not.  But all the time you are learning what it means to be in relationship with God. 

We are all a people with a past. It’s a past rooted in memory, shaped by the journey, and by God’s deliverance and care… and therein rests the joy!  And there is no greater joy than God’s ultimate deliverance in Jesus Christ!  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” (John 3:16, NIV).

Click here to listen to more (February 21 sermon). 

Your partner on the journey,

Pastor Steve