{"id":2975,"date":"2023-09-12T07:22:44","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T11:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2975"},"modified":"2023-09-12T07:26:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T11:26:00","slug":"choosing-a-better-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/12\/choosing-a-better-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing a Better Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,<\/em> click here<\/a>
 
People make sense of their lives by means of the stories they believe.
 
Those narratives can spring from many sources: parental guidance, childhood experiences, religious instruction, favorite teachers, friends\u2019 ideas, and earnest personal study. 
 
If you toss in a few favorite books, some videos on YouTube, and all the stuff that \u201ceverybody simply knows to be true,\u201d what\u2019s left is a patchwork quilt of ideas \u2013 some of which we only half-believe, others which we believe with all our hearts, and still others we don\u2019t even know are banging around inside our heads. 
 
Once those stories and ideas get fixed in our minds, however, they are notoriously difficult to dislodge. 
 
One definition of \u201cgrowing up\u201d \u2013 becoming a more mature human being \u2013 is displaying enough humility and self-awareness to keep thinking, \u201cI may be wrong about things, even very important things, so I need to keep an open mind.\u201d 
 
What we know for sure is that people don\u2019t like it when you mess with their stories. 
 
That includes historians. 
 
Most of us grew up learning about the so-called Dark Ages \u2013 that lengthy span, roughly A.D. 500 to 1400, in which Western civilization is said to have almost died.  The story goes that intellectual curiosity was squelched, science was trumped by religious dogma, and the flickering candle of scholarship was virtually snuffed out by closeminded medieval theologians. Then came the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.  After the Church was finally forced to the sidelines, humanity was rescued by reason, common sense, and progress. 
 
That\u2019s the default story that\u2019s been taught in most Western classrooms for the last 400 years.
 
That perspective, of course, was promoted by the same historians and philosophers who coined the terms Renaissance (the \u201crebirth\u201d of the wisdom of the pre-Christian world) and Enlightenment (the \u201clights coming back on\u201d all across Europe).  These are the same writers who invented the notion of the Dark Ages, which they judged to be a desolate period when everything of value seemed to be at risk.
 
Today\u2019s historians know better.  The \u201cDark Ages\u201d were anything but.  It\u2019s now widely acknowledged that medieval Europe was blessed with groundbreaking innovations in art, architecture, and technology, and produced some of history\u2019s greatest thinkers, including Thomas Aquinas.     
 
Unsurprisingly, those who have long embraced the story that \u201cReason means progress, faith means regress\u201d have been reluctant to change their minds.
 
People don\u2019t like it when you mess with their stories.  That includes America\u2019s favorite stories, too.
 
During my childhood, Christopher Columbus was a hero \u2013 the courageous sea captain who crossed the Atlantic to discover the New World.  Today, one is far more likely to hear that Columbus didn\u2019t \u201cdiscover\u201d anything at all, since indigenous peoples had been living in the Western hemisphere for centuries.  All Columbus did was bring disease and domination.
 
Older Americans, in particular, feel that rewriting the \u201cColumbus story\u201d is an unwarranted assault on a beloved figure.  And they don\u2019t like it one bit.
 
Then there\u2019s the jarring experience of being compelled to rethink the story of one\u2019s own family.
 
Perhaps you\u2019ve always looked back on your earliest years with wonder and gratitude.  But then someone suggests that one of your parents had a secret addiction.  Or a sibling announces that he or she was molested by a favorite uncle.  The happy story you always believed is now threatened, and you\u2019re starting to resent those who are stirring up the past.
 
People don\u2019t like it when you mess with their stories.
 
That\u2019s because when you challenge the veracity of a cherished story, you force the person who believes it to do hard thinking and make hard choices.  And very few of us want to do that.
 
Now we know how Jesus\u2019 listeners must have felt.  He dared to challenge Israel\u2019s story \u2013 the one, at least, that Israel was telling about itself.
 
First century Jews lived in the certainty that they were special.  They were blessed to be God\u2019s chosen people.  That blessing came with special privileges<\/em>.  God would surely rescue his people from their bondage \u2013 their bondage to the Romans who had overrun their land \u2013 and all the nations of the earth would look up to Israel and glorify God.   
 
Then Jesus comes along and flips the script. 
 
Yes, the Jews are blessed to be God\u2019s chosen people.  But the blessing chiefly comes with special responsibilities<\/em>.  God will surely rescue his people from their bondage \u2013 their bondage to sin<\/em> \u2013 and they will become representatives of God\u2019s grace and mercy to all the nations of the earth.  They will do this by turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile, and praying for their enemies.
 
That\u2019s a very different way of telling the story. 
 
And it left many people feeling unsettled, if not outright angry.
 
Today there are competing stories about what it means to be a Christian in America.  Some would say that those who follow Jesus \u2013 with their insistence on ideas like good and evil \u2013 are traditionalists who are seriously out of step with the post-modern world, and will slowly fade from view.  Others would describe Jesus-followers as a persecuted minority who should seek government assistance to obtain special privileges and protections.  Still others see Christians as an angry voting bloc that has decided, \u201cEnough of that stuff about turning the other cheek,\u201d and has come out swinging. 
 
Those are dreadful stories. 
 
The good news is that we can still choose a better one.
 
Jesus\u2019 understanding of reality remains alive and well. 
 
Those who abandon their own agendas and choose to follow him become the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16).  Our call is not to be served, but to serve (Mark 10:45).  We are now God\u2019s ambassadors, extending to people everywhere \u2013 no matter who they are \u2013 his gracious invitation to new life (2 Corinthians 5:20).  Best of all, Jesus promises to be with us every step of the way (Matthew 28:20).
 
Embracing such a way of living, with open hands and open hearts, may ruffle the feathers of some of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
 
But that\u2019s OK. 
 
As stories go, it\u2019s the only way to fly \u2013 for the simple reason that it\u2019s the very story God himself has always told. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here People make sense of their lives by means of the stories they believe. Those narratives can spring from many sources: parental guidance, childhood experiences, religious instruction, favorite teachers, friends\u2019 ideas, and earnest personal study.  If you toss in a few favorite books, some videos on YouTube, and all the stuff that \u201ceverybody simply knows… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[634],"class_list":["post-2975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2975"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2979,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2975\/revisions\/2979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}