Your Documentation Matters

Deposit Photos. Used with permission.

YOUR DOCUMENTATION MATTERS

Documents, in and of themselves, have nothing to with morality or spirituality. When we are talking about evidence or artifacts, they are simply documents.

Literally, shoes are shoes. Right? Well, when it comes to DOCUMENTING for the purpose of a historical account we should see records, artifacts, and other documents in the same light.

Documents are important to histories because they contribute to a more inclusive history. What if we only had one Gospel account instead of four? What if we only knew about Solomon building the Temple, but never had Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, or the Song of Solomon. So much of our biblical history would be lost.

Without those additional documents, our English canonized bible as we know it today would not be complete. Diligence in preserving these documents over the centuries has added richly to our understanding and knowledge of the Father! Your documents are puzzle pieces in your story, and your story is a puzzle piece in a narrative eater than what is before you.

This, as I see it, is what inclusive histories look like as we dig deeper into uncovering the prophetic calling of the chronicler. Every person alive RIGHT NOW is contributing to history in some way. And those contributions, even if they are not topics favorable to our beliefs as Sons of God, are important because they all shape our story.

Why is this discussion important?

Well, because it teaches us to respect documentation -- and how EACH PIECE OF IT shapes the story of US! Listen, there are so many things from my past that I would like to forget. There are decisions I have made that have irrevocably shaped my life -- both positive and negative. If I were to take ONE... just one of them away, it would affect the outcome of my story.

The same is true for the nations -- wherever we are. WE ARE THE TAPESTRY OF HISTORY.... and our prophetic burdens to document are a part of our collective stories.

If you've made it this far in the course, then I pray this part brings clarity to our journey. As I mentioned in the video at the beginning of the course, "We are responsible for documenting on own histories and telling our own stories. Now that we have access to these resources and technologies, we can be deliberate AS SONS in contributing our part instead of leaving them at the mercy of others."

INSPIRING STORY WORTH REMEMBERING

Please take a minute to learn about the amazing story of Marion Stokes. Without her efforts, all of the history she recorded would be lost. Why is this significant? Because even the television networks did not save or document their own programming during this time. But Marion Stokes did.

According to the website and national news articles, "Marion Stokes was secretly recording television twenty-four hours a day for thirty years. It started in 1979 with the Iranian Hostage Crisis at the dawn of the twenty-four hour news cycle. It ended on December 14, 2012 while the Sandy Hook massacre played on television as Marion passed away. In between, Marion recorded on 70,000 VHS tapes, capturing revolutions, lies, wars, triumphs, catastrophes, bloopers, talk shows, and commercials that tell us who we were, and show how television shaped the world of today." (Excerpt taken from a website concerning her endeavor, https://recorderfilm.com/)

RESOURCES

All People Are Living Histories A History In Which We Can All See Ourselves The Power of Inclusive History National Archives Document's Espionage