“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18

His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:2.  

 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.         1 Corinthians 12:26

Whispers and Footprints.

Shhhh, if you’re quiet you can hear their whispers.
If you look closely you can see the hints. 
The little gifts left from those come before us
Our forefathers left the gift of their footprints.

We are all products of those gone before us.
Shaped by the history of all humankind.
The result of the best and the worst of this world
Becoming part of who we are over time.

We want to believe we’re in charge of our lives
That we alone can determine our fate.
But who we are isn’t so much about us  
As about how the past and the present conflate.

We all began in the perfect Garden
Where God’s expression of love became us.
Our first parents lived His eternal beauty
Until the enemy brought them distrust.

Distrust led to the first act of sin.
And perfection cannot support sin.
So humans were expelled from the garden
As God worked on His plan to bring us back in.

That plan was to send His Son Jesus
To wipe away all the world’s sins.
Through His life, His death, and His resurrection
The garden would become perfect again.

In order to become the best of ourselves
We must accept the gifts that our ancestors gave.
If fear doesn’t distort our view of the footprints
We can see them as roads that our forefathers paved. 

We are free to ignore their footprints.
Still, their influence is timeless and ageless.
Listen closely and you’ll hear a voice whisper, 
“Just open your heart to the footprints of Jesus.”
Linda Troxell © /23/2021

Those in the ancient Hebrew culture believed that ancestors didn’t just live before us, they lived on through us and they passed on their blessings, sins, and curses to the next generation.  Ancestors were so much a part of their lives that someone disabled from birth was thought to be suffering for the sin of their ancestors more so than their own sin.  His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:2.  

Most of life was a mystery for ancient peoples. They didn’t know why the rain came, or why it stopped. Nor did they understand why the moon changed. Why did it shrink and grow and disappear from the sky? And why did the sun disappear from the sky sooner on some days than others? Throughout history, different groups of people came up with different ways to explain nature.

Many cultures had gods and goddesses who were in charge of what they found unfathomable. The Greeks had 12 gods and goddesses who, Greek mythology tells us, lived and ruled from Mount Olympus. Zeus was the overarching god and the king of Mount Olympus. He ruled heaven and earth and controlled the rest of a ruckus crowd of lesser deities.

On the other hand, Things were simpler for the Hebrews for they had the One True God YEHWEH who created everything in the world and therefore was in charge of how everything worked. No other explanation was required. 

But still, they could see, just as we see that certain characteristics, such as eye color, height, and even behaviors, were passed on by families through the generations. So, it wasn’t much of a leap to believe that the favor of blessings and the penalties of sin would be passed on too.

Science has solved much of the mystery surrounding disease and disability. And most of us in western cultures do not believe that illness or disability is caused by sin, let alone the sins of our ancestors. Unfortunately, that knowledge tends to make us believe that our ancestors have no effect on our present lives. It’s a dangerous belief.

In his novel, Requiem for a Nun, William Faulkner wrote,  “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” He was speaking of family secrets that are passed on through the generations. These things affect us even if we know nothing about them. But if we look closely, all of us can see the footprints of our ancestors in our family ideas, beliefs, and behaviors.

These footprints are called generational patterns. Whether we like it or not, indeed whether we believe it or not, we are all connected to those who came before us. In a very real sense, our ancestors are who we are. We see it every day in families. One child looks just like her mom’s great, great grandmother and another has a beautiful singing voice just as his father’s great uncle did.  

While we are connected to one another through our genes, generational patterns are a little different. The idea isn’t complicated, it boils down to the fact that some ideas, beliefs, and behaviors are passed down from generation to generation often not expressly. 

In many families, these patterns may go unnoticed because most of us don’t know much about the behavior of our ancestors and can make no comparison. But if the behaviors become problems, gambling comes to mind, so does domestic violence, we may begin to pay attention to them. 

Think of movies we’ve all seen in which in the opening we see the antagonist as a child going into the corner bar to collect his father. Soon we see the father as a boy having to collect his own father from the bar. Before the movie ends chances are we will see the antagonist as a grown man and his own son collecting him from the bar. This is an example of a generational pattern. Hopefully, it ends in recovery and redemption. But not always.

Many of these behaviors are hidden generation after generation making them difficult to recognize as patterns. Everyone knows there is a secret but no one will talk about it. Often, I would say most often, generational patterns are only identified when they come to light in therapy.

However, our patterns that are not being hidden aren’t hard to see if we just pay attention. We can see them in three generations of women who make meatloaf every Tuesday because that’s what their mother did.  Or me who will buy only a Ford brand car because “Jones men have always driven Fords.” These are examples of patterns that aren’t harmful. Boring? Maybe but not harmful. Still, they are very stubborn and tend to last forever.

The church is a family as well. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and those Christians who came before us are our ancestors. Through generational patterns, the blessings or sins of one part of the church affect the whole church as a body from generation to generation.  If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.  1 Corinthians 12:26

As an example, in the late 80s, there was a series of scandals about the bad behaviors of several television evangelists that rocked the Christian world. And I hope none of us have forgotten the horror story uncovered in 2011 about children who were sexually abused by priests. Both of these things caused great and far-reaching damage.

The damage did not only affect those preachers, priests, and their congregations. It has affected all of Christianity and will continue to do so for many generations to come.  Many people still don’t trust pastors, particularly those on T.V. because of that scandal. And there are many who will never be able to trust a priest again. Beginning, perhaps with those children whose childhoods were stolen by the trauma.

Although the bad behaviors in those cases belonged only to the individuals who perpetrated the acts, their sins are held against all Christians. Their bad behaviors reflected on all of Christianity reinforcing the continuing belief that all Christians are hypocrites, corrupt, and not to be trusted. Tragically, it has kept some from coming to the Lord.

We need to let this help us to remember that the connection we have with one another, and with Christ, is meaningful to more than just our immediate circle. We are all part of the same body so our relationships with Jesus, with one another, and with the world, concern all of us. So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Romans 5:12

We each have generational patterns of which we are unaware. They are not all necessarily bad. Some can be neutral and, yes, some can be fully good. But we each need to pay attention to not only our habitual actions but our habitual thoughts as well. We need to understand what they are serving and if it is something we want to serve.

When we identify our patterns, we must ask ourselves if any of them are contrary to God’s will? Are some of them hurtful to others? Are some of them holding us back from having the full relationship with Jesus that we want?” Only we can know. And only we can fix what needs fixing.

Identifying destructive patterns is not enough, nor is understanding them. We each need to make a purposeful decision to stop any pattern that stands in the way of our walk with Christ. And we need to enlist any help we may need to succeed. It’s a choice, and it is a choice only we can make. 

In ancient Rome, the Jews had very little choice in their lives. Including the choice to fully surrender to Rome. This made Roman soldiers their masters. They were not only subjects of the Roman Empire, but each individual soldier in Rome was the master over all Jews. Every one of them had literal control over whether any given Jew lived or died at any given moment. They expected full obedience.

Then came the one they had been waiting for. Jesus, the Messiah they believed would rescue them from Roman oppression. But He demanded that those who follow Him surrender to Him completely too. Jesus told them they couldn’t serve two masters. The Jews had to make a choice. 

It was a life and death choice. Because to follow Jesus in ancient Rome required the willingness to sacrifice one’s life. But if He was the Messiah, if He had come to save them, there really was no choice. So, Jesus became their new master, the one they would serve and follow.  “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27

There are still many places in our world today that to be a Christian is to risk one’s freedom and one’s life. The U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom maintains a list of countries in which they claim Christians are persecuted, including being put to death. The list currently has 12 countries but many believe that is woefully inaccurate and the real number is much higher.

Of course, in the U.S. we are particularly blessed because we are a country whose government cannot, by law, persecute anyone for their religious affiliation. Therefore, we are unlikely to have to risk death or persecution in order to follow Jesus. 

However, there is no law that can prevent bias and there is a definite bias in the U.S. against belief in the Christian God. So, while we do not risk death in the U.S. to follow Jesus, no matter where we are following Him it will always be emotionally, psychologically, and socially risky. 

While we will not be required to risk our physical death, we will need to allow much of ourselves to die in order to become new people in Christ. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

We will be required to discover new thoughts and new feelings as well as a whole new way to understand and manage those thoughts and feelings we hold on to. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5.  

We will definitely be required to give up old beliefs and replace them with new beliefs. “Jesus said to him ‘if you can believe, all things are possible to them that believe.’” Mark 9:23

And we may be required to give up, disrupt, or severely restrict, many of our closest relationships You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. Matthew 10:22

It would be so easy to look at the extreme difficulties and dangers faced by our less fortunate Christian brothers and sisters and conclude that what we risk and give up is nothing. Don’t do it. Just because it’s not everything, doesn’t mean it’s nothing.

We must keep those in danger in our prayers and we should always do what we can to help them even if it causes us some hardship. However, we do ourselves no favors by downplaying the difficulty facing us when we choose to follow Jesus. If we don’t admit it and look it squarely in the face it will sabotage us. There is no question, Following Jesus properly will be difficult.

I believe that God gave us the body of Christ as a family to mitigate the difficulty of what we risk to follow Him. What people had to risk to follow Jesus in the early days required the ability to come together to share their pain and to share their courage as well.  

In the early days, followers were a very close tightly-knit group. They had to be secretive at all times because their vulnerablity was beyond what you and I can understand. They each held the lives of all the others in their hands.

If they were caught meeting together they would all be arrested and some or all put to death. So, they met in one another’s homes for dinner, worship, and fellowship. Nothing brings a body closer than shared vulnerability and necessary dependence. 

I think that as the body of Christ grew, it was a natural progression for the church, which was the people moving from spot to spot to worship according to safety, to become a building called the church in which the people could gather together to worship in one place.

As the body of Christ grew larger, their growing numbers made them less vulnerable. Secrecy became less important and space became more important. They needed larger meeting places to accommodate their growth. Eventually, it became necessary for meetings to be held in buildings that accommodated the whole body.  

In the beginning, it was dangerous to be a follower of Christ. It required the willingness to put your life on the line. For, if you weren’t beheaded like Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist, or stoned to death like the apostle Stephen, you could end up in prison for years like Paul. 

Paul wrote four of the books of the Bible from prison. And he writes beautifully of his sacrifice for Christ as a privilege.  “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18

However, I have to be honest here. While I understand and admire Paul’s sentiment, and I truly find it to be beautiful, even inspiring, I just don’t think I could be as courageous in that position. I would like to believe otherwise about myself, but I’m not going to lie and compound my sin, I don’t think I’m that strong. I dread pain, physical, emotional, or psychological, any pain. 

So, it’s lucky for me that the Bible says that God provides us with the strength to survive that which He needs us to survive. Although it’s hard for me to imagine, I fully believe that He will. 

Because if I believe my Father in heaven provides me with my daily bread, forgives me of my sins, and leads me not into temptation but delivers me from evil, if I believe His kingdom will come and if I profess to want His will to be done, how can I then not believe He will give me the strength and grace I need to do His will and to defend Him when I need to? 

I don’t need to know what I would do if I had to risk life or limb for my Lord and Savior. I only have to trust that He will do whatever is necessary to further His plan so He will give me whatever I need to help move that plan forward. And I need to trust Him. I need to trust that because He loves me, He doesn’t want me to suffer. And so I won’t. At least not enough suffering to prevent me from doing His will.

Points for Pondering or for Prayer
Or
Perhaps For Putting Pen to Paper

*What are your thoughts about generational patterns?   
Were you aware of the concept before reading it here? 
We all have patterns within our own families, what are some generational patterns in your family?

*I used to think that had I been there with Jesus and seen the miracles He performed, I would be a lot stronger in my faith.  What do you think about that?

*I’ve come to understand that isn’t true. If my faith depends on what I can see, what I can hear, or what I can touch, it isn’t faith.
I believe faith is believing in that which I cannot see, I cannot hear, and I cannot touch. 
Write a few lines explaining your own faith.