History

Like most American school children, I studied history through out my formative educational years, first through twelveth grades, in either social studies, or some form of history class. But, it wasn't until I went to college, that I really developed a love for the subject. Prior to my college coursework, the education of history had always been limited to rote memorization of dates, and disembodied events, that for me seemed to have no real connection or particular significance. As a student of color, I was even more disenfranchised, since the only mention of my history was about two paragraphs long as a sidenote to the rest of the chapter. When I got to college, I remember sitting in Dr. Horowitz's and Dr. Milner's classes and having my hair blown back. In both of those courses, attention was given to the cultural and cognitive paradigms behind the events. That changed the game. Suddenly, history was fascinating, and relevant to my own personal experience. It put things into perspective and provided understanding into how those dates and events that I'd previously learned about effected things in the present. I was hooked. I still am.

I have been doing some reading that has got me thinking about the history of spiritual warfare. Not unlike school children, we are fed small focus political points on pet issues that don't illuminate the whole picture. In this election year, we are, once again, led to focus on abortion rights, the economy, education, healthcare, and the other usual suspects. What we don't often see is how all of these "cultural" issues are inextricably linked and the spiritual agenda behind them. Like the 3-D posters from the eighties that I blogged about in a previous post, we must stop focusing on the individual pixels, and come to see the sum of the parts. Only then will we understand what we are seeing.

"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding." Proverbs 4:7