Remember
[bl]O[/bl]ur present struggles and tragedies quickly become our history. Events that shape us deeply, redefine us as individuals and community. Whether it’s bondage to a pharaoh or watching a sea part for your escape. Or entering battles unprepared and outnumbered. Or being persecuted because of who you believe in. Or enslaved because of the color of your skin. It’s the wars fought for land and rights. The sickness that swept through and brought death. The laws that kept us separate. The airplanes that crumbled buildings and stole life.
These events will never go away. They are apart of our story forever.
I was struck yesterday by the way we were continuously called to remember that tragic day of September 11th. Of course we remember…of course we forget. For those whose eyes witnessed, whose legs had to run, whose loved ones were victim to the crime. How can they forget?
And yet as with most tragic remembering, the memory does fade the further we journey from it. Details get lost. Sequence is confused. Mental pictures are less vivid.
Is this our mind taking care of us, healing us? So the pain isn’t always fresh and crippling?
And for those of us who watched the heart wrenching images and catastrophic activity from the safety of our homes, we remember less. We forget more. And this reminder to consider the fateful event draws our nation together with focus and intention. To remember together. The lost lives, the heroic impulses, the widespread responses, the effort to re-build, the healing of the survivors.
This call to remember has me fumbling through Scripture reading all the moments when God called his people to remember. To look back and not forget.
Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery.
Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel.
Remember all the commandments of the LORD.
Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb.
Remember that you were a slave in Egypt.
Remember all the way that the LORD your God has led you through the wilderness these forty years.
Remember what Amelek did to you along the way.
Remember the days of old, consider the years of generations.
Why does God call us to remember? What is the value in recalling painful memories and tragic events?
We’re a people that forget. God knows that when we taste the milk and honey, when we sit in our comfortable house, when we experience freedom, abundance, and healing — we will forget the places that came before. The bondage. The pain. Death. Loss. Heartache. And it is in those places that God is made known to us. It is those times where his strength overcomes our weakness. His healing covers our wounds. His comfort holds our heart. His spirit fills our loss.
It is here, in these places, where The Creator becomes The Deliverer. And his broken people become the redeemed.
This is God’s story.
When God calls his people to stop, worship, build an alter, celebrate, and remember — he is calling his people to look back on the story God has them in. The story where he is glorified and his people are brought closer to his intended places of freedom.
This remembering is good for our faith. It reinforces the truth that God was, is and will always be faithful.
As you move through this day after the day, and you continue to remember all that 9-11 brings to mind – remember the ways God was present in this tragedy. How he has restored and comforted. How he has reminded us of what is important. How he carried this nation through many dark days.
Stop. And worship him for who he is. And remember all the ways he has delivered you, your family and our nation.
Let us not forget the LORD our God.
Thank you to the Church between the Oak and the Maple — for the way you gather, worship and inspire these words.
Today I remember. All that God has delivered our family from. And I’m thankful.
#357 Fearful nights of fits and no sleep
#358 Anger
#359 A temper passed down from generations
#360 Family conflict
#361 Accidents on Ugandan roads
#362 Malaria
#363 Staph in Mark’s leg from mango worms
#364 Abadonment
#365 No family
#366 Poverty
#367 Marital conflict
#368 A risky birth
#369 Selfishness
#370 A broken family
#371 Blind eyes to the rest of the world
