“Over time, your theology conforms to your reality or your reality conforms to your theology. Scripture is more than our script; it’s our script-cure. . . . Scripture confronts the false identities and false narratives perpetrated by the Father of Lies. It reveals the heavenly Father’s metanarrative and the unique role that each one of us plays in it.”- Mark Batterson
“We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt at no cost — also the cucumbers, melons, onions, and garlic.”- Numbers 11:5 (NIV)
Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 1 of Win the Day as he asserts that a few unanalyzed experiences form the by-product of our outlook on life. And our memory of hose experiences is both subjective and selective. While subjective memories get blown out of proportion, selective memories get subtracted from. Also, the way we weigh memory often creates an imbalance. Consequently, we need God to sanctify both our memories and our imaginations.
Thus, Mark sees the story of the Exodus as Israel’s signature story. Although God delivered Israel in a single day, it took them forty years to possess the Promised Land. In other words, Pastor Batterson quips, “It took one day to get Israel out of Egypt, but it took forty years to get Egypt out of Israel.”
Because Israel operated from selective memory. And that’s our problem as well. For, Mark notes, it’s downright debilitating to remember wrong. Mark counsels:
“We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. If you want to win the day, you’ve got to start by rewriting yesterday. . . . Historical revisionism is the practice of reinterpreting past events. We need to put this into practice in our personal lives by remembering things the right way. How? From the far side of the cross. From the far side of the empty tomb.”
Above all, Mark underscores, what God says about you needs to form your signature story.
Today’s question: How do you see that Scripture is more than our script-cure? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Conceived in a vacuum? – not dreams!”
