I have been reminded this week, in a few different ways, of the power of memory-of the power of remembering and honoring. A good friend of mine sent me an email a few days ago about how she needed to "remember" God. She needed to remember that He is present, active, faithful. That in itself led me down a path of reflecting on the story of the Exodus: after the Israelites were miraculously delivered from their oppression, they had to be reminded to remember. They had to be reminded that God was faithful, alive, and with them. From a completely objective point of view, one would think that this would be a no-brainer. Of course God was faithful... He showed up in some pretty miraculous ways! But they still forgot. They complained. They wanted more than God's provision for them. And over and over in Exodus we see, "Remember God's Faithfulness."
And then today in Sunday School, we talked about this again. We are about to start a trek through the book of Deuteronomy (which I have never read in its entirety) and this is also an apparent theme. Remember. Remember. Remember God. Remember His faithfulness. Remember that He loves you. Remember that you are His child. Peter, who teaches our class, encouraged us to also remember our own journeys of faith as we read this book. Remember.
There is power in being able to remember. There is power in being able to take a step back, especially when the details of life are overwhelming...when the freshness of a relationship with the Father seems mundane....when what is apparent and obvious is pain. Remember God. Remember that I am loved and beloved. In remembering what is true, I can shift my thinking-reminding myself that I belong to the Creator, the King of Kings, YWHW, Jehovah. It is easy to think that I don't belong to him... which is why I must stop to remember.
I am reading Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen... a book that is all about living into our Divine belovedness. Today I am reminded to remember that I am a child of God, and that in truly understanding that truth changes my posture... changes how I live, how I treat myself, and how I treat others. Remembering and understanding who I belong to and how much He loves me allows me to enter into light and joy. Understanding and remembering takes me into the arms of the Father and trusting in a way that far surpasses any that I could conjure up in my own head. Understanding and remembering carries me from walking slumped over in shame to walking in confidence with my heavenly Father. I'll be honest--this is difficult to remember most days... which is why I guess God is into object lessons.
I often feel guilty for not remembering-for trusting myself and the opinions of others far more than I trust God. But I guess God knows this our tendency, since we are reminded to remember over and over again. And I guess this is why God wants us to worship together... to celebrate Holy Communion together....to remind each other to remember.
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3 comments:
Very well written! I often have to remind myself to remember who I belong to. People come into our lives but they don't always stay, however, one thing always should remain a constant. God is good! He will never leave us and the memories of how he exists in our everyday lives and how much he touches our soul are more often than not remembered first before any memories I have of mortal friends/family members! He may only be visible to me one time and at that time, I will be quick to remember all the wonderful memories of how he's always saved me! He's the father who forgives when we screw up, he's the father that speaks the truth so long as our ears are open to it, he's the father that provides us always with what we need and he's the father who will always be there to comfort us when we need comfort. Who else in your life can you say that about? Isn't that a great feeling?
hmmmm, that's way better than chocolate and less fattening too!
have fun and God Bless
kT
hey Maggie. Remembering is so important and, for me, I find that I often remember the bad things and my problems more than I remember the awesome displays of God's power and love in my life. I actually finally started writing down the most amazing instances of God's providence. I have about 10 entries and I consider them all to be nothing short of miraculous. They almost all happened at times when I was at my lowest... seems to be the way God usually works in my life, although lately I've been on cloud nine and have experienced some pretty cool manifestations of God's presence. I appreciate the honesty of your posts.
good point, matt. and i wonder if our tendency to only remember and dwell on the negative is why there are so many points, particularly in the old testament, where God instructs His people to remember His faithfulness... since it is definitely easier to remember the bad things and to think those things are bigger. Clearly, it is God who is bigger, but there seems to be a necessity to stop and remember in order to see it.
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