Remembering to Remember
Photo by Rafael Leão on Unsplash
My memory isn’t great. I'll look at my wife blankly when she asks me something as mundane as our neighbor's name down the street, shrug, and say, "No clue." Then, 20 minutes later, while I'm fixing supper, I'll shout, "Rob! His name is Rob!!" It's curious what I can remember and what I can't. I remember the exact outfit my wife wore the first time I met her. I can tell you the posters I had on my wall in fifth grade. But ask me where I ate lunch last Tuesday, and I'm lost. Memories are precious. Most of us have encountered someone who has dementia or Alzheimer's. Much of the sinister nature of the disease is because it robs the beauty of shared memories.
Remembering. What a powerful concept.
Here’s a question for you to ponder: Have you ever considered remembrance as a spiritual discipline? When we think of spiritual disciplines, we think of Bible reading, prayer, worship, service, and so on. These are the traditional disciplines associated with the foundations of solid faith. But there’s a good argument to be made that remembering is a crucial spiritual habit and one that is modeled throughout Scripture.
Time after time, we see people in the Bible remembering how God was faithful to them. We see this in times of trouble. We see this in times of victory. And we see it in times of the unknown.
King Saul saw Goliath, and he said, "Nope. No way." David, the shepherd boy, saw the giant and said, “Bring him on.” Why the difference in responses? Because David remembered: “And David said, ‘The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine’” (1 Sam. 17:37).
God commands remembrance. When Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan into the Promised Land, the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness over, he told the people to grab stones from the Jordan and stack them up on the other side of the river. Why? We see the reason in Joshua 4:6–7: “When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.’”
Maybe the most profound occurrence of God commanding His people to remember is Jesus' words to the disciples at the Last Supper. In an incredibly intimate moment, Jesus, knowing He was heading to the cross, looked at His closest friends and essentially said, "When you eat this meal again, remember this moment and the moments that are coming. Don’t forget.”
If you are a Christian reading this, you have a track record of God’s intersection with your life. You have times in your life, some long ago, some relatively recent, where God has intervened. You have seen God in the tough times. You have encountered Him in the victories. And one of the most important things we can do as Christ-followers is to remember those times.
We draw strength for our challenging times by remembering how God has been faithful to us in the past.
Let me challenge you to embrace the spiritual discipline of remembrance. This week, make it a point to stop and reflect on specific times when God showed up. Remember these times. Tell your spouse or children about them. Remember how you felt. And simply thank God for it. Express your gratitude to a Father who is so lovingly active in the lives of His children.
This article originally appeared in the Good For You Newsletter, Vol: 9.
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