MORNING GLORY 37
We’re celebrating our 3rd (third!!) birthday this month, and I forgot. Yep, on the day of our third birthday it hit me…wait a minute…TODAY is the day. Ahhhh! (Palm in forehead)
This year has been packed with all the good, crazy, messy, joyful, new, answer e for all of the above things. Planning a wedding, getting married, moving across state lines, getting settled in our new home, figuring out how to cook and be married, traveling, spending time with friends and family, changing name to married name, getting new license plates and licenses, fixing my car (twice) — the list goes on!
So in the midst of all these really good and new and crazy things, something else really good slipped my mind. It’s made me realize how easy it is to simply forget. Completely unintentional, yet we are so easily caught up in everything going on around us.
I’ve been reading through the Old Testament this year, and one of the biggest lessons the Israelites have taught me is humankind’s forgetfulness. Time and time again, God’s people turned away from Him, forgetting all He had done to rescue them. King after king reigned; some worshipped the Lord and most turned to pagan gods and idolatry. Yet God’s thread of faithfulness continued generation after generation despite His people’s forgetfulness and unfaithfulness. Each time His people turned to Him or prayed in times of trouble, He “remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” and “took notice of them.” (Exodus 2:24-25). There are countless Scripture stories sharing this same message: God remembers us.
And we, too, are part of that story. We need to pause, take a deep breath, rest, and remember. I believe remembering is one of the fruits of resting. When we rest, our minds have space to breathe and let all the thoughts from every corner of our lives settle for a bit. Once the dust clears, we remember — remember what truly matters. Then and only then do our souls have the capacity to let those truest things rise to the surface.
I love Christy Nockels’ song Always Remember To Never Forget. (Take a listen!) That phrase says it all right there! We need to remember so we never forget. The same is true not only in our everyday lives, but especially in our faith. How often do we to forget to spend quiet time with the Lord? How quick are we to pick worry over worship; control over trust? How easy it is to forget not only our Maker, but the beautiful Truth that He made us — wonderfully — as Psalm 139 tells us so. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Jesus is our ultimate sacrament of remembrance. When we partake in communion, we are actively remembering His great sacrifice and gift of salvation on the cross. Just as Jesus told His disciples — This bread is my body — eat this in remembrance of me.
Jesus remembered us on the cross. He took our place and carried our sin, and yet when we confess our sins to Him, He remembers them no more. (Hebrews 8:12)
Remembering is a sense of knowing that comes from being still. Rather than being idle as the world tends to label stillness, being still is a posture of the soul; a restful breath giving space for us to take inventory of all that’s happened and prepare for what’s to come. And it is not idle. Often times, our surroundings are anything but still. But this stillness is an inner peace-river flowing from the never-ending stream of God’s strength and grace.
Now that sounds like something I want to press into more, how about you? And if we’re being really honest here, I think we can all admit the art of rest is a work in progress. May we keep at it in a world that never seems to slow down. May we find rest even in the middle of unrest. By the grace of Jesus — May it be so.