“History is not a burden on the memory, but an illumination of the soul.” – Lord Acton

“My life is a story about who God is and what He does in a human heart.” – Shauna Niequist

“History is HIStory.” – Unknown Author

“Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence.” – St. Augustine of Hippo

Take a quiet moment today and think about your past – the history of who you are and what has transpired in your life.  Think about the childhood moments in time that changed you or the chosen profession that took your life in a different direction.  Think about how your relationships have impacted it – from parents, siblings, family members, and spouses – writing it or rewriting it in ways you never really contemplated.  Think about it in terms of the blessings and the hardships – what has positively shifted your personal course and the difficulties you faced that took your life down roads that you never intended to travel.

As you think about your personal history, I am sure you can differentiate between the choices you made to write your own and the uncontrollable events that occurred that had a way of erasing or rewriting it all on their own.

I love this quote from Dorothy Salisbury Davis: “History is like a story in a way:  It depends on who is telling it.”   

When I take time to think about my own history, I can see how the storyteller (in this case myself) has a way of placing emphasis on certain events or circumstances and minimizing others.  How we look at our personal history, how we tell the story to ourselves and others, can often be skewed by subjectivity and bias – allowing the true, objective parts of our history to fade into the distance or to be subconsciously discounted and ignored.

One of those truths we often forget is described in this C.S. Lewis quote: “History is a story written by the finger of God.”

With God, your history was known before it began – many aspects of it already predestined to fulfill the purposes of the Almighty.

“Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began. – Psalm 139:16 CSB

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” – Jeremiah 1:5 NIV

I am not trying to diminish our choices and the impact they have on our past, but we are not being an objective storyteller of our personal history if we diminish the Creator, His sovereignty, His purpose for our lives, and the ultimate meaning behind the spiritual intent of our human existence.

Our history was God’s known and written plan as described in the Psalm above.  He knew us in the womb, where our history was the future to Him.  In a timeless sort of way, an Omniscient God has seen the whole of who we are before any of our personal history was created.  He knew the choices we would make and crafted with loving, sovereign intention each circumstance around those choices that would lead us toward the fulfillment of His created purpose behind our lives.

So, in essence my friend, our history has a timeless God at the very center of it.  Our history is our history with Him!  I love the quote I mentioned above:  History is HIStory 😊

That struggle with illness, the devastating divorce, that abrupt and unexpected event that changed the course of your life, had God right in the middle of them as they unfolded in the present tense.  God was aware of their impact on your history BEFORE they became history for you. 

Not only was He there in those exact moments as the difficulties surfaced, He saw how you would respond and the impact those choices would have on your future.

He knew the heartbreaking loss would create a new resilience within you.  He saw how loneliness would drive you closer to Him, how His deliverance would strengthen your faith for the future hardships you would face. 

Do you see HIStory unfolding within your life?  Can you look to your past and see His purposes for you unfolding?  Do you see how your autonomist choices have been known before your time began by a God who allows, redirects, and steers you toward your destiny?

The mystery and wonder behind an Omniscient God who intertwines our personal choices with His predestined purposes for us can leave us wondering if our history is something we alone have created or is strictly determined by His sovereignty.

As I think about this idea within my own life, I realize my role in the history I create is two-fold:  To align the choices I make moving forward with God’s principles and to trust I am being guided and directed toward God’s ultimate will for my life.  As my Father and Creator, I must dutifully listen and act as His child as I face each daily choice He places in front of me – following His principles and commandments.

In turn, no matter what unfolds, I must faithfully trust He is at the very center of each event and circumstance – both the good and the bad – the blessings and the hardships.

“Obey God and leave the consequences to Him.” – Charles Stanley

When we see and connect that our history is HIStory for us, our minds are at peace and at rest – knowing God’s loving purposes are coming to fruition 😊

Praise Him for all He is and all He has done in our past and in all that is yet to come!