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History and Me ...

Friday, Sept 6, 2013. What is my personal relationship to history. When we think about recent history, we might be able to look back to the time 1989, when the wall in Germany fell and suddenly thousands of people from east Germany were able to come to the west. People had parties on the road …!

My place in history …

Where am I in history? Perhaps you think about some important person. We have a poster with Steven Jobs, the founder of Apple, in our house - issued by the German Computer Society. He is a person who is linked to historically important developments, to the growth of the IT society. Or you think about the president of your country, to Barack Obama or Angela Merkel or others. They seem to be “historic” individuals.

What is your place in history. I believe, that we have a distorted image of what is important and what is not. We think about particular individuals, who seem to have shaped our world. But that is more a narrative than the truth. It is a feature of the human mind, that we are oriented towards people. And we try to link important developments to people. So we generate the stories which bring people into the center of important developments.

But history does not work like that. History is always something which many people, many individuals, generate. There would be no American story without many Americans who have built up the country. There would be no German economic wonder without all the individuals, without the many Engineers and Scientists, Businessmen and Secretaries, Cleaners and Workers, who just do their job in a good and trustful way. It is not up to one special person - though special people will have their role. A group needs some leadership - but it needs the people who do the work as well.

One Body …

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The bible shapes the image of “one body” for the community of believers. We are all one body in Christ. No one is unimportant. We are all needed, as are the different parts of your own body, your fingers, your ears, your eyes, your backbone, your flesh, your feet, your legs, your arms, your inner organs (barely visible to the outside), your hairs, your fingernails etc etc.

It is good to learn about history. We will find that countries have florished, when they gave everyone a chance, and when they had reliable institutions, reliable people, reliable government. When justice reigns, when fairness is there, when your efforts pay, then it makes sense to work hard, and you can harvest the fruits of your efforts.

There is a place for every single individual in history. God wants everyone. He gave every single person gifts and talents. And we are all needed. We all need to be able to make our living, to work with others, to make our choices and to succeed with our life. History is us all - and that is just fantastic. There are challenges enough for everyone of us, and there is the Lord, who wants to be with us in all what we do. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts

jn_en_2013_09_06.txt · Last modified: 2017/06/18 16:48 by 127.0.0.1