In The Empire Strikes Back, we are surprised when Darth Vader is revealed as Luke Skywalker’s father. This revealing allows us to re-explore both characters with more detail, providing better interpretation of past scenes we thought we already knew.

Life has a similar surprise. Doors are opened to greater truth when origins are revealed.

In the Torah, for instance, after giving a story it provides a linage. These are markers to help us pinpoint the context of the story, providing appropriate perspective. In Deuteronomy, it says to remember the days of old and to consider the years of many generations. To ask the father to reveal it and the elders to tell it.

Today, we open the Bible as if we were casually browsing store adverts tucked in the newspaper. We look closer at items which appeal to the eyes and ears… then purchase to utilize for our liking. We call these memory verses.

The glaring problem with this activity is that we lose the circumstances of the verses. It’s like taking a metric out of a rhythmic stanza… and then gleaning on that metric without reciting the actual rhyme.

We have lost our understanding of truth because we fail to participate in the very act of seeking it. We do not ask the father to reveal himself, or our elders to explain. Instead, we have pushed both influences away from our midst in order for a state or tyrant to show us how we are deemed worthy. That worthiness today comes in a form of robotic slavery. In fact, the word robot itself (robotnik) refers to drudgery and forced labor.

Is it no wonder we live in a generation of such automatons?

We will keep going this path until certain people are willing to reveal their souls. This is not just about revealing who you are… but what you hold.

You see, we are more than just ourselves. We carry the blood of those before us… yet we are so selfish and short-sighted today we continue to make decisions based on carnality. What about the future of the unborn, or the trails of blood earnestly spilt by our ancestors before us? We are not alone in this pursuit.

Purpose cannot be earned based on works of a person; it is found within the directive the person has been given. There is a story to be told within us. Yet we must allow the storyteller to speak instead of our fleshly desires. The father will show us. Our ancient elders will tell us. But we need to listen and be silent.

We strive for originality, yet fail to grasp that we all began somewhere. As said in Ecclesiastes…. there is nothing new under the sun. How can you find out who you are if you don’t know who you have been? Why keep retreading?

And that’s really why we are in the pickle we are in. We keep re-treading a journey without seeking the markers — and then wonder why we are back where we started.

Time to get to the point.