News

History does not happen in a tunnel. When reading about some great event of history, we are tempted to think that was all that was happening at the time; at least we may think it the only or most important thing happening.

During the time period in which Martin Luther took hammer in hand to post his 95 theses, world changing as this seemingly innocuous task was, it was not the only event to shape the world’s future path. Shortly after the posting, Ferdinand Magellan began a voyage around the world. Previous to Luther’s theses, explorers like Amerigo Vespucci and John Cabot began investigating the New World. Sometime later slave trade from Africa to South America and the Caribbean began.

Each of these on their own were to make a major impact on the world of its day and had a hand in shaping the world to come. Each are worth their own study and place in history. Yet together they and other events of the time worked to create a world that far transcended their time period.

Our study of history too often is of the more narrow, tunnel type. Looking at history we need to lift our sights from some event or person to what was going on around them and around the world. Many times we even see a connection, however weak or strong.

Likewise in our own time, however tragic, however great a person or event of our time, the world is much more than that which catches our focus. In fact, this is what so often gets us in trouble as we try to understand a person or event. We fail to see how they or it might be connected to something much larger that has happened or is happening.

In Luther’s day, God was not just dealing with the religious upheaval of the Reformation. God was also dealing with Magellan and the travels of explorers. God was dealing with the Mayans in the Yucatan and the Inuit of Alaska. God was dealing with those left in Africa and those being kidnapped and forced into slavery. God was dealing with those becoming Lutheran, those becoming Reformed, and those who would be other players in the Reformation. God was also dealing with the Roman Catholics and their leaders.

God is not a god who stays within the protective walls of tunnels. God ventures out into all people and events, into all history. You and I, fearful though we sometimes may be, are called out of our safe havens to look at the world around us and be God’s people in the world; God’s called and sent prescription for the world’s ills.

Such a call can seem overwhelming. Yet, we are not called to go and fix the world; we are simply called to go as those with good news trusting we go also with God who works in various ways to address the ills of the world. That is, we are called to follow and serve.

Historians, nations, and leaders must lift their gaze beyond their time and place to understand there is more than a person, an event, or even a nation at work….there is a world on the move….with or without us. Followers of Jesus cannot be navel gazers wrapped up in their own small world for their personal world is caught up in the same world that constantly is marching ahead.

Gratefully as we carefully tip toe from the darkness of our tunnels into the light of history, we discover again a God who alone can keep pace with all the lives, all the events of the world, all the good and all the evil. Look around! We may see God at work! Look around! There are plenty of places that need our work, our following, our serving.