Tell the Next Generation

After the plague the LORD said to Moses and to Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, “Take a census of the whole congregation of the Israelites, from twenty years old and upward, by their ancestral house, everyone in Israel able to go to war.  Numbers 26:1-2

Florida State University legendary coach Bobby Bowden died last year. Bowden’s football record and accomplishments were truly impressive.  One of these was being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Yet his football accomplishments paled in comparison to his spiritual legacy. Bowden’s son, Tommy said of his father that he “coached until age 80 because the high-profile profession offered so many opportunities to share Jesus with others. He wanted to coach as long as he could to advance the kingdom of God and that his dad wanted to take as many people as he can to heaven with him.”

His football fame will become interesting statistics but his spiritual impact will last for eternity. Bowden once said, “Faith allowed me to stay focused on things within my power while leaving the rest of it in God’s hands.” The most important parts of Bowden’s past continue to impact the future.

“Close to you I waken in the dead of night, and start with fear-

are you lost to me once more? Is it always vainly that I seek you,

you, my past?

I stretch my hands out, And I pray- and a new thing now I hear:

The past will come to you once more, and be your life’s enduring part,

through thanks and repentance. Feel in the past God’s forgiveness and goodness,

Pray him to keep you today and tomorrow.”

These are the words from the last stanza of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s poem, The Past. Our past is really forever since our tomorrow will soon be our past. Our past is both the ordinary and spectacular events that makeup life and yet, the richest part of our past is the people who intersected with us in life. They are the individuals who shaped us, taught us, loved us, and occasionally hurt us. We remember events most often because of the people who shared that moment of time with us.

Bonhoeffer’s understanding of the past as reflected in his poem most likely formed his understanding of the importance of connecting the spiritual generations together. Writing from his Tegel prison cell to his nephew at his baptism, Bonhoeffer said:

“You are the first of a new generation in our family, and therefore the oldest representative of your generation. You will have the priceless advantage of spending a good part of your life with the third and fourth generations that went before you. Your great-grandfather will be able to tell you, from his own personal memories, of people who were born in the eighteenth century; and one day, long after the year 2000, you will be the living bridge over which your descendants will get an oral tradition of more than 250 years.”

Moses had walked faithfully with God through the wilderness leading the nation of Israel. God commanded Moses to count the people by their family heritage. The census became a family tree for those getting ready to enter the promised land, a record of faith that has been passed down from one generation to the next. It was a past that was not always glorious, but a past that linked each generation to the next.

Biological family trees are critical in reflecting our connection to life. However, maybe just as important is the richness of one’s faith family tree. Our spiritual family creates a unique bond that establishes generations together in ways our biological family is unable to do.  Our faith family trees often include many of our biological family members and many others such as school teachers, neighbors and Sunday school teachers.  These relationships add much depth and richness to life. “To be deeply rooted in the soil of the past makes life harder, but it also makes it richer and more vigorous.” (Bonhoeffer)

Who makes up your faith family? What relationships, writers, artists or places have shaped your ways of believing and worshipping? Try the following exercise during a personal spiritual retreat. Create a faith family tree of spiritual influencers in your life by drawing yourself at its base. Then on the branches and trunk nearest you, write the names of those most directly engaged in your spiritual journey. As you move away from the base, place names or descriptions of other influences on your spiritual life.

Allow this exercise to become holy ground for you as you pray and reflect upon those who God has used to water and shape your tree of faith.  Pray over each name, place, or event that shaped you as a gift of gratitude. In this personal retreat experience, let it become a precious and moving time of worship.

“Take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.” Deuteronomy 4:9

God is great,