for underdogs & kings…

In my Bible, the heading above Genesis 35 says “Jacob Returns to Bethel.” Granted, this is just a heading added by the editor to help the reader navigate more efficiently. And yet, there’s a whole story in this heading.
As a younger man, Jacob had found himself in a real tough spot. He had schemed and manipulated his brother and father in order to advance his own life. It had worked. And yet, he now found himself running for his life. He had screwed his brother pretty badly, and his brother was now determined to get revenge. Alone and on the run, Jacob stopped for the night and slept under the stars. During the night, God visited him and showed him some pretty amazing things. Then God made some outrageous, extravagant promises to Jacob, assuring him that his life and his descendants would be thoroughly and completely blessed. Towards the end of the encounter, God tells Jacob “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.”
This encounter was a pivotal moment in Jacob’s life. He woke up full of promise and purpose. Wanting to honor the moment and the encounter, he took a stone and “set it up as a pillar.” He didn’t want to forget this, so he set up a stone to mark the place. And “he called the place Bethel.”
God kept His promises to Jacob…big time. He blessed Jacob in every way and protected him though some pretty gnarly situations. Jacob’s life was far from easy: he had to fight for those promises many times, and he had to come face to face with his brother and his past. Yet through it all, God blessed him and protected him.
In Genesis 35, God speaks to Jacob and tells him to go back to Bethel…back to the place where it all began. It seems that it was important that Jacob and his family go back to the place where God met him and remember the ways that God had been good to them. Jacob had yet another encounter with God at the same place and the Bible says that again, Jacob set up a stone pillar to mark the place. And he isn’t the only one. We see other champions of faith in the Bible set up stone pillars or monuments of some kind so that any time they passed by that place, they would remember the times that God had come through and tell those stories to their children.
If you’ve walked some miles with God, I hope that you’ve experienced some encounters with Him that have changed things for you. I hope that you’ve experienced moments when He came through for you and showed you just how good He is. I know I have, and I’ve been challenged lately to make sure that I don’t forget those moments, but that I honor them as a sacred part of my story.
We’re often taught that life is all about looking forward. We’re told that there’s a reason why our windshield is big and our rearview mirror is small: that it’s more vital that we look forward rather than looking behind us. In general, I believe that’s true. We can’t live in the past. There’s lots of things that aren’t pretty back there. The future is bright and something to look forward to. And yet, sometimes we need to go back. Back to the place where God came through. Back to the place where everything changed. Back to the place where we encountered something real.
We’re probably not going to set up stone pillars in the backyard or around town. But these monuments should have a sacred place in our internal world. They should be visited. And when they’re visited, we should take a moment to say “thank you,” we should remember how good He’s been, and we should honor the truth that these moments are a crucial part of our story.
The guys like Jacob in the Bible who set up these pillars and monuments did it to honor God and honor the moment…but they also did it for their own legacy and heritage. They didn’t just want to remember…they wanted their children to understand and remember.
I believe this is crucial. Our kids need to know the story. Not just the Bible stories…they need to know OUR story. Your story is powerful. Your story is real. And your story matters. Not just to you, but to the people closest to you. My challenge is that we would invite our children into our story: that we would take them past those monument moments and tell them that “this is the place in my story where God came through. This is the place where everything changed.”
We’ve agonized over the fact that a good chunk of the millennials who were raised in this faith are either jaded in their view of it or flat out walking away from it. There’s a myriad of reasons for this, and there’s nothing simple about it. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But I believe that this can be one possible antidote. I believe that we’ve done a pretty good job of telling THE story to the next generation, but I’m not sure that we’ve done an adequate job at telling OUR story.
It’s understandable, because it can be really hard to tell our story. We want our kids to know the best version of ourselves. It’s not always fun to tell the monument stories, because usually those monuments begin in a place that was pretty rough and pretty painful. But if we’re willing to be vulnerable with our own family, if we’re willing to invite them into our story and share in those monument moments, I believe it has the potential to breathe fresh life into the faith of the next generation. I’m sure it wasn’t a great feeling for Jacob to tell the first part of his story to his kids… “so here I was. I had lied to your grandpa, I had cheated your uncle, and I was scared and running away…” Not exactly the hero image that a father wants to portray to his kids. But the story is powerful, and it requires the painful part as well as the powerful part.
Your story is relevant, your story is powerful, and your story is tangible for those you’re closest to. I invite you to summon the courage to share it. There’s value in telling Bible stories to our kids. It’s essential that we teach them Biblical principles. But, they also need to hear our stories, especially as they get older. The felt-board Bible stories are a great foundation, but as our kids get older, they need something a little more tangible: something that looks and sounds and feels like real life. That’s where your story becomes so powerful.
I’m challenging myself this year to be more intentional in honoring those “Legacy stones” in my life. Yes, I’m looking forward to the future. Yes, I’m dreaming and planning and hoping for this year…but, I also need to turn around sometimes and take a look at those stone pillars that dot the landscape of my story. I need to look back and remember those times and places where God came through for me. I need to say thank you for the times that He’s been good. And I need to be intentional and vulnerable with my kids so that I can invite them into the story…so they can understand their heritage and legacy. My hope is that they can be awakened to the truth that the God has been more than a felt board concept: He’s become real to me.
Let’s all do that this year. Let’s set up those legacy stones in our internal world and in our family culture. Let’s go back to “Bethel”…back to the places where He became real, where He was good, where He came through. Let’s remember those moments and places where everything changed.