Even as we move forward in our lives, it is important that we look back occasionally as the past and our understanding of it establishes our trajectory moving forward. In my own life, I realize that I’ve fashioned my own private gallery wherein I’ve framed the events and vignettes in a manner most conducive to justifying where I am and why I am the man I am in the moment.
Shakespeare wrote that “the evils that men do live after them; the good is oft interred with their bones”. So it has been with my gallery. I had an entire wing dedicated to the wrongs that I’d suffered, the injustices, the slights. I could stand in front of each and marvel at the evil displayed with a subconscious sense of pride for how well I had fashioned the frame in which I displayed them.
Enter the Holy Spirit. No one else enters my gallery but I, but the Holy Spirit insisted that I share this part of my heart with Him as well. I confess to being ashamed at the revelation of my handiwork, as it did not comport in any real sense with the handiwork He is working in me. So, it has been that I’ve spent no small amount of time curating my gallery – breaking frames, relegating some works to the ash heap and re-framing others in the context of gratitude.
The Bible tells us that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose1. For me, being called according to His purpose is not to presume that I am another Moses or a prophet, but rather just another sheep responding to the Shepherd’s call. In understanding that, I understand that I am precisely where God wants me. In understanding that, too, I understand that everything in my life has worked to deliver me to this moment and I am grateful. It doesn’t matter the intentions of others, what matters is God’s purpose. Even when I had strayed, God was there. Jesus suffered immeasurable pain and suffering because of my repeated stumbles and misdeeds. If He doesn’t hold a grudge, how can I?
And so it is that I add one more shingle to my resume. I am also a curator. As I walk the halls of my gallery, I watch for those pieces shaped and purposed by the Artist of all creation, while I keep an eye out for those fashioned by the con artist that had previously dominated the collection. The collection is thinning, but the theme is becoming ever more explicit – God is great in His mercy and His grace.
1 Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
In a dry and thirsty land 