Today was our last day of this week. Our focus today was measuring the human change process, using your wounds as a tool for helping others and ethics in people helping. Every one of these topics was as rich and deep as they sound!
But the greatest impact of the day came in a more devotional moment when we were talking about being people of redemption - people who's lives offer redemption to those we are helping. Dr. Grace Hubbard, our primary professor for this week , and a woman with a rich history of effective professional counseling, shared from the lives of the Israelites as they left Egypt.
We are slow to see the song of redemption because most of the time we have to look backwards to sing it. But looking forward to an uncertain future - to sing the song of redemption looking forward is difficult when it looks dark and dry. Once the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea, they sang the song of redemption...but then came the desert. The desert was so different from anything they had known. They had grown in the rich fertile valley of the Nile River - there was no mud here to squish between their toes. They had leeks, onions and garlic to cook with in Egypt - So tasty! Now all they had was manna - a rather pleasant but bland food. They longed for what they knew. They were tired of bland manna, there was sand in there hair and eyes and clothes. It's very hard to sing a song of redemption when you are on your way to a new place AND YOU DON'T HAVE ANY KNOWLEGE OF WHAT THAT PLACE WILL BE LIKE!
You may have been told that you are going to a place of milk and honey, but today there is sand in your shoes and dirt in your hair. When they finally arrived at the Promised land, it is no mistake that the spies brought back reports of the food they saw, and there were no onions, or garlic or leeks. Nothing familiar - now there was new food. That was the point to the tasteless manna - it had cleansed the palate of the past. There was redemption in the past and now there was redemption in front of them...but they got to it through the desert.
I have known Egypt. I have known the passing through the Red Sea. And I have known the desert. And I sang the song of redemption after the crossing of the Red Sea. And I struggled to sing the song of Redemption as I trudged through the desert and ate tasteless but nourishing manna. And now God has cleansed my palate and I am believing His promise of redemption ahead and when someone brings back a report of what is ahead in the Promise land I try to believe and the tune to a new Redemption song is beginning to form...and I can't wait till I've learned it by heart and can sing it at the top of my lungs.
WOW...
This has been so inspiring..
Almost makes me speechless....
I'm with you
"and I can't wait till I've learned it by heart and can sing it at the top of my lungs"
Posted by: heidi | June 26, 2008 at 07:17 PM
I'll echo Heidi's WOW! I want to wrap my arms around your words and hold them close to me.
On another note, where you say "...using your wounds as a tool for helping others..." made me think of Rick and Annette. In a very real way they do that when working conciliation with churches in crisis -- and the families in that church. Annette once told me that they often use examples from their own lives to show how to work through arguments and dissension. She told me once that there was one time when they were in a dispute and at one point looked at each other and said they should use that moment the next time they were working with a church!
Posted by: Heather | June 27, 2008 at 04:48 AM
Thank you for this. I am in a desert. I am encouraged to sing the redemption song while I wait.
Linda
Posted by: Linda P | August 31, 2009 at 10:12 AM