{"id":1579,"date":"2023-08-29T19:09:30","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T19:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579"},"modified":"2023-08-29T19:09:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T19:09:35","slug":"the-weight-of-papers-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579","title":{"rendered":"The weight of papers past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some people are good at throwing things away. I\u2019m not (though I\u2019ve gotten much better with practice). You never know when something will be useful. Anyway, I was heading into a master\u2019s degree before I finally managed to throw out my middle school<\/em><\/strong> papers, work, and notes that I had kept. There is just so much precious in them\u2014at least, deeply precious to me. They speak to a past, a pattern of growth, work, and effort. They were precious. At least, precious in the sense of I would rather keep them around in a drawer in the dresser at my parent\u2019s house that I didn\u2019t live in and, even whilst visiting, hardly ever looked into. But keeping them there rather than throwing them away was important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is one of the funny things about our pasts. They are dear to us, but often, the weight of the past is a lot like clutter which hampers life in the now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In successive bouts of de-cluttering throughout the years, I have succeeded in throwing away (or recycling 😊) all of my former middle school, high school, undergraduate, as well as graduate school materials and assignments, except for a carefully curated few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What ultimately got me around to throwing away\/recycling? The past weighed too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weight of the past<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Papers are heavy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First, quite literally the past was too heavy to keep carrying around each time we moved. When you have to carry each and every box of papers from the past downstairs, into a truck, out of the truck, and upstairs into a new house, the weight of the past becomes far less precious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identities are heavier<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Second, and more metaphorically, I found over time that holding on to so much of the past can be a burdensome weight in understanding who I am and what I am trying to be in the present. It has been fun to periodically poke about in my middle school essays, review my chemistry notes from high school, or look at water resources engineering problems from college. But these all bear very little connection to my life now. They are testimonies of what I once could do well, bu\u00ad\u00ad\u00adt no longer remember much about and no longer have any need to do. Holding on to them was holding on to an idea of who I am and what I should be able to do that is no longer true or necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I once could do advanced mathematics and all kinds of cool stuff in chemistry. But outside of a brief stint in tutoring math and a few lucky times in substitute teaching, I haven\u2019t done any of that stuff in more than a decade. Maybe this is just me, but I\u2019ve found that holding on to these testaments of past ability puts a pressure on my life to still be able to do what I used to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, over the years I have progressively pruned, with increasing ruthlessness, my stash of precious papers from the past. Now the stacks and piles are a mere couple folders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure you can tell a similar story with your own possessions. The experience of pruning things from the past is a helpful analogy to talking about change at church as we think through our current Church Health Assessment. In working through my precious papers which tied me to the past, there are three important principles I’ve come to appreciate about how I need to relate to the past: (1) honor the past, (2) live in the present, and (3) face the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming shortly, we’ll think a little together about how these principles relate to various ways the church relates to the past. As we process, discuss, and debate aspects of our recent Church Health Assessment, we will certainly need wisdom to figure out what in our past should remain our present, how we can honor the past, how we can face the future, and how we can do all these things without being weighed down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord, help us.\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some people are good at throwing things away. I\u2019m not (though I\u2019ve gotten much better with practice). You never know when something will be useful. Anyway, I was heading into a master\u2019s degree before I finally managed to throw out my middle school papers, work, and notes that I had kept. There is just so … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The weight of papers past”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[162],"yoast_head":"\nThe weight of papers past - First Baptist Church of Manistique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The weight of the past can be crushing. De-cluttering past papers provides some insight into how we relate to our past.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The weight of papers past - First Baptist Church of Manistique\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The weight of the past can be crushing. De-cluttering past papers provides some insight into how we relate to our past.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"First Baptist Church of Manistique\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/248467813772\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-29T19:09:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-29T19:09:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/002a5b92-50af-4070-a8ff-b51cda90d4d6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nathaniel Erickson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nathaniel Erickson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nathaniel Erickson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#\/schema\/person\/5d499ff1e51066490af4e35bfcbe077b\"},\"headline\":\"The weight of papers past\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-29T19:09:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-29T19:09:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579\"},\"wordCount\":689,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/002a5b92-50af-4070-a8ff-b51cda90d4d6.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"church life\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Pastor's Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579\",\"name\":\"The weight of papers past - First Baptist Church of Manistique\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/002a5b92-50af-4070-a8ff-b51cda90d4d6.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-29T19:09:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-29T19:09:35+00:00\",\"description\":\"The weight of the past can be crushing. De-cluttering past papers provides some insight into how we relate to our past.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/002a5b92-50af-4070-a8ff-b51cda90d4d6.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/002a5b92-50af-4070-a8ff-b51cda90d4d6.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":1024,\"caption\":\"boy standing next to tower of papers reaching into the sky\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The weight of papers past\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/\",\"name\":\"First Baptist Church of Manistique\",\"description\":\"Friends pointing the way to a safe harbor through the light of faith in Jesus Christ.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"First Baptist Church of Manistique, MI\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/FBC-Logov4-Color-Small-transparent.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/FBC-Logov4-Color-Small-transparent.png\",\"width\":259,\"height\":317,\"caption\":\"First Baptist Church of Manistique, MI\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/248467813772\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCNAoycWBk0stSprUBng8Uhw\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#\/schema\/person\/5d499ff1e51066490af4e35bfcbe077b\",\"name\":\"Nathaniel Erickson\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ntgreeketal.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The weight of papers past - First Baptist Church of Manistique","description":"The weight of the past can be crushing. De-cluttering past papers provides some insight into how we relate to our past.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The weight of papers past - First Baptist Church of Manistique","og_description":"The weight of the past can be crushing. De-cluttering past papers provides some insight into how we relate to our past.","og_url":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579","og_site_name":"First Baptist Church of Manistique","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/248467813772","article_published_time":"2023-08-29T19:09:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-08-29T19:09:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/002a5b92-50af-4070-a8ff-b51cda90d4d6.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nathaniel Erickson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nathaniel Erickson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579"},"author":{"name":"Nathaniel Erickson","@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#\/schema\/person\/5d499ff1e51066490af4e35bfcbe077b"},"headline":"The weight of papers past","datePublished":"2023-08-29T19:09:30+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-29T19:09:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579"},"wordCount":689,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/002a5b92-50af-4070-a8ff-b51cda90d4d6.jpg","keywords":["church life"],"articleSection":["Pastor's Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579","url":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579","name":"The weight of papers past - First Baptist Church of Manistique","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/002a5b92-50af-4070-a8ff-b51cda90d4d6.jpg","datePublished":"2023-08-29T19:09:30+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-29T19:09:35+00:00","description":"The weight of the past can be crushing. De-cluttering past papers provides some insight into how we relate to our past.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/002a5b92-50af-4070-a8ff-b51cda90d4d6.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/002a5b92-50af-4070-a8ff-b51cda90d4d6.jpg","width":1024,"height":1024,"caption":"boy standing next to tower of papers reaching into the sky"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=1579#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The weight of papers past"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/","name":"First Baptist Church of Manistique","description":"Friends pointing the way to a safe harbor through the light of faith in Jesus Christ.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#organization","name":"First Baptist Church of Manistique, MI","url":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/FBC-Logov4-Color-Small-transparent.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/FBC-Logov4-Color-Small-transparent.png","width":259,"height":317,"caption":"First Baptist Church of Manistique, MI"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/248467813772","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCNAoycWBk0stSprUBng8Uhw"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/#\/schema\/person\/5d499ff1e51066490af4e35bfcbe077b","name":"Nathaniel Erickson","sameAs":["https:\/\/ntgreeketal.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?author=3"}]}},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1581,"href":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579\/revisions\/1581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}