CLEOEJACKSONIII.COM
  • My Home Page
  • My Life and Ministry
  • My Ongoing Thoughts
  • My Favorite Bible Verses
  • My Favorite Stories
  • My Favorite Jokes
  • My Favorite Quotations
  • My Favorite Web Links
  • My Contact Info
"Helping Others Communicate"

CHAIN GANG!

4/13/2018

 
Some time back, I titled  one of my  previous  New Year’s themed blog posts “BACK AND FORTH”.  I would like to revisit this fairly common phrase today. More than likely, most everyone reading these words has both heard and employed this particular phrase. In common usage, it gets applied to everything from the exchange of words within a conversation to the process of mowing one’s lawn.  It is even a metaphor for the living of one’s life.
 
Charles Swindoll likely had this in mind when he wrote a book titled Three Steps Forward, One Step Back.  Both this book’s title and its content assert that life is rarely a continual progression from bad to good, or good to better.  It is rather a series of advances interspersed with retreats, of successes intermixed with setbacks. 

Dr. Swindoll is right.  If we would be honest, most all of us advance by taking a few steps forward and then one or two back before proceeding yet again. What is more, God‘s Word amply affirms this principle. The Holy Bible contains numerous examples of people whose progression through life was peppered with intermittent failures, with no less than King David, John the Baptist, and Simon Peter among them. 

It has been said the Bible paints pictures of the people within its covers “warts and all”.  That is to say that it makes no attempt to hide their frailty.  For my part, I’m glad it does.  I find encouragement as I read of the struggles and eventual successes among the various lives unfolding on the pages of Scripture. For this has helped me to accept the fact that I am not perfect.  I cannot be.  Nor must I be. Rather, I realize that my own journey forward in life may be periodically punctuated with a step backward. 

But this does not mean I cannot make progress.  God understands my weaknesses; yet, He works in and through me in spite of them! Thus, with His help, I can learn from my mistakes and make tomorrow a better day than today, even as today can be made a better day than yesterday.  But I digress.

The events of the past couple of weeks have helped me to gain yet another, perhaps even greater, appreciation for the phrase “Back and Forth”.  Knowing that I would be laid up for a couple of weeks while recovering from foot surgery, I had prepared a number of personal projects in advance to which I hoped to give my attention.  Among them was some long overdue genealogical research.

My personal love for genealogy came about as the natural result of a combination of two other loves:  history and family.  The wonder of genealogy is that it combines the two and thereby makes history come alive.  It literally imbues history with personal meaning.  Thus, one does not just merely read about such historical events as World War Two or the Great Depression.  Instead, one begins to sense the very personal nature of these historical events, particularly when he or she sees how it personally affected one’s family. 

By way of illustration, few things make such times come alive like holding a book of Ration Stamps that once belonged to one’s very own grandfather. To see the limits imposed on sugar, coffee, gasoline, and other such simple, everyday necessities is to see how they lived their everyday lives in the midst of times that required tremendous sacrifice from everyone.

As I have worked on updating my genealogy over the last few weeks, I have been reminded of all those in my family who came before me, as well as the untold number of sacrifices they undertook on behalf of me and all successive generations.  It has been both humbling and beneficial to look back and be reminded of this.

But then came the events of this past Wednesday, when my son welcomed his own firstborn son into the world.  As he did, I welcomed my second grandson (and the first to bear my surname). As you might expect, this has been a time of great joy in our family.  Emotions have abounded as we have celebrated this wonderful event together. 

For me, though, it has not just been a time of emotion.  It has also been a time of reflection.  For suddenly, in the midst of spending so much time looking “back” into the past (in my genealogical studies), I have now found myself looking “forth” into the future as well.  In the process, I have reached some important conclusions. 

Yesterday matters.  Without it, there would be no today.  Or at the very least, without the events of yesterday, today would not have turned out as it has.  Conversely, part of why today matters so much is because of its impact on tomorrow.  In short, tomorrow matters.  And for this reason, today matters.  And for both of these reasons, yesterday matters.

In the first part of my life (during my childhood), I more or less viewed myself as the end result of a process. I was the recipient of what all had come before.  After all, I was the grandchild alongside of my parents and grandparents. Later on, as an adult, I began to view myself more as a contributor. Finding myself with children of my own, I began to see that I too gave as well as got.

Now, I am beginning to see myself less as either one of these (as in the receiver OR the giver) and more as a combination of both of them.  The events of this week in particular have helped once more to underscore for me that I am merely one among many in a very long line between the past and the present.  I am, quite literally, just one of many, many, many links in a vast chain.  Viewed against the backdrop of human history, I am but a small part of something far, far bigger than myself. 

And yet, I am a vital part of that chain.  Without me, the chain would have been broken.  It would not have gone forward.  Of course, the same thing can be said of every other link in this chain.  Every single link has mattered. And every single link will matter.  Each piece simultaneously represents the past, the present, and the future!  That is the very nature of the chain.

For this reason, it is important that I stay strong in my appointed time.  It is essential that I connect with both the past and the future, that I take what I have received from all that have come before me and pass it on to all that come after me.  This is my responsibility – to keep the chain connected, strong, and growing.  Oh, how I pray that I will be found faithful in my time. Oh, how I pray that will be found faithful as a part of this “chain gang”!

In the Old Testament Book of Esther (chapter 4, verse 14), the title character was told by her uncle, Mordecai, that she may very well have been placed by God when and where she was for the sole purpose of protecting and procuring the future of her people.

I would suggest that, in a very real sense, this can be said of all of us.  In His divine sovereignty, God has surely positioned each and every one of us as individual links at precisely the point in the chain where we can be the most effective.   And we do this by acknowledging our debt to all those before (and around) us, and then by passing these blessings along to those after and beyond us!

At the risk of extending a post that is arguably already too long, I would like to share one last thought. My genealogical research has taught me that what is true for individuals is also true for families: they each progress by taking a few steps forward and then one or two backward.  A lineage can go up for generation or two, improving both its standard of living and its standing in its community. 

And then, through such uncontrollable events as war, disease, famine, economic downturns, and the like, fate can dictate that it go backward a step or two.  In these times, there is little doubt that the struggles and eventual triumphs of previous generations can and do serve as powerful encouragement for facing difficult days.  I am the recipient of such encouragement from my own ancestors.  I now trust that I will be the provider of such for own descendants.

I leave you with the words of Steve Green from his number one song, “Find Us Faithful”, found on his multiple award winning 1994 album, “People Need the Lord”…


We’re pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who’ve gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God’s sustaining grace


Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who’ve gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness
Passed on through godly lives


Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful


After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we’ve left behind
May the clues that they discover
And the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them
To the road we each must find


Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful


Amen!  So may it be!

SOURCES:

LYRICS SOURCE: 

http://stevegreenministries.org/product/find-us-faithful-5/.

SCRIPTURE SOURCE: 
http://biblehub.com/esther/4-14.htm.

FOR MORE ON CHARLES SWINDOLL, CHECK OUT:

http://www.stonebriar.org/about-us/staff-elders/staffmembers/1/, http://insight.org/about/chuck-swindoll, and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Swindoll.

HIS ABOVE REFERENCED BOOK IS AVAILABLE HERE:

https://www.christianbook.com/three-steps-forward-two-back-paperback/charles-swindoll/9780849940989/pd/31272.

LASTLY…  For what it’s worth, through the marvels of the internet, I have now been able to trace my personal genealogy all the way back to my 26th great grandfather - a certain Roger DeLascelles Jackson Sr., in England in 1086 AD.  It is interesting that this man, born in the first generation after William the Conqueror's Norman invasion of 1066 AD, bears both English and French names!  At some point, I hope to update my webpage to reflect this wealth of new information.  Hopefully this will all come about in time.


Comments are closed.

    Cleo E. Jackson, III

    Occasionally I will add
    a few thoughts to my blog. If you find them inspirational, I will be
    honored.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    Categories

    All