I’ve been posting mostly Bible studies on my blog recently. I suppose you could say I’ve been writing about His Story. But for the last four years I’ve also been doing a lot of writing about history. His Story and history – not a bad combination, really. When I began Watchmakers Pulse, I was writing about our story…. preparations, adventures, and travels as we headed into what we thought was going to be retirement. And then things shifted a bit and our path changed. Hindsight is always clearer than foresight. Looking back over the past five years, I recognize blessings that have come through difficulties, opportunities that have come through disappointments, and countless joys that have been mingled with our tears.

Look at this passage from Luke 14:25-33:

“Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.’“

At first glance, this seems to be a rather harsh thing for Jesus to say. The key to the passage, though, is found in the concluding statement – “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” The apostle Paul illustrates this principle for us as well in Philippians 2 and 3, but here’s his point in a nutshell – “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,” (Phil. 2:5-7) and “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil. 3:8-9).

Our righteousness (“rightness”) before God stems ONLY from our faith and trust in Jesus and reliance on Him to be our substitution (righteousness) before the holiness of God. To trust in Him means to do just that – trust Him, not ourselves. When we give our life to Jesus to follow Him and trust Him, we are to fully and completely do that. When we take our eyes off Him and put them on something or someone else, we are no longer trusting in Him for our holiness. That’s what he means to “hate everyone else” or “count everything as loss.” We don’t actually hate or lose, we just focus more on Him.

That’s what I’ve learned (or am still learning) about the things that have happened over my life, and during the time since beginning Watchmakers Pulse. God allows things into our lives that serve to bring our focus back to Him. Moses told the fledgling nation of Israel, in Deuteronomy 8:5, “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.” The point of discipline is for correction – turning us into the way that we should go.

I could say that our lives are not as we predicted when we set out on our retirement journey, and that would be a correct statement. But it is incorrect to say that we are not where we ought to be. Graciously, God has directed our every path and we are exactly where we need to be according to His purpose.

As I continue telling His Story (through my Bible study posts), I’m going to start reviewing and retelling our story, because in doing so, I’m also telling His Story. You’ll notice a new category called “His Story in Our Story”. I try to link all my related posts with categories so people can trace them easier. As I said earlier, hindsight is better than foresight. It’s often easier to recognize God’s work when looking back than it is in the immediate present. God has been so good to us and it is important that I share those stories. It’s not just my story… it’s not just history… it’s also His Story.