remember

I have very little hope of remembering specific details these days unless I write it down. I often don’t actually even need to read it again, as long as I write it down once, it has a better chance of sticking. I could blame my every-lessening ability to retain new things on age, having had four children, maybe even some chemo effects… but whatever the reason, the truth is, it’s hard to remember.

When I was growing up we had a semi-regular rhythm as a family of getting out the slide projector and going through old pictures one click at a time. I loved the whole process: digging out this crazy-looking machine, loading each tiny square frame into the wheel, and then settling into the scenes that would light on the wall, with the dusty light-beam and not-so-quiet whirring of the projector in the background. I loved seeing pictures of myself, my siblings, and my cousins from a time that was so far back I didn’t have any real tangible memories of myself. And I loved seeing pictures of my mom in the years after she passed away. It felt like an active way to remember that she was a part of who we are, and also a way to refresh the details of her face whenever they were fading in my own mind.

There are many good reasons to remember. Sometimes we need to remember in order to undo lies that we have been told about ourselves, whether consciously or unconsciously. We need to see clearly the false or misguided narratives that have informed our perspectives, and even our identities, in unhelpful and unhealthy ways. We may need to remember times we have made mistakes, where we have hurt others or have been hurt, so that we can choose different ways forward in the present and the future.

And there are also many good, important lessons to remember. Truths to hold on to that ground us in who God is and who he says we are. The Bible is full of reminders to remember. And in fact, God even incorporated many practical methods of holding on to memory throughout the story of Scripture: monuments to remind future generations of something significant that had occurred; instructions to repeat and repeat and repeat stories of God’s faithfulness and presence with his people; encouragements to put the words of God in prominent places in our homes and even on our bodies so that we are consistently reminded that we are his, and that this remembering should inform the way we live and move in the world around us.

In this ongoing task of not forgetting to remember, it is clear to me that I need help. So many times in life, it feels like I am relearning something I thought I had already grasped well. I find myself confronted with a truth that I once knew, that I was even adamant and passionate about in a past version of myself, but then it slowly slips away… I can see how I have forgotten to remember.
We need one another in these spaces. We need people around us to share their own memories, their own versions of the story so that the truths and pieces that we’ve also known but lost sight of, can swim slowly back into our view. We need reminders, adjustments, fine-tuning of our remembering: a friend to speak the truth of our value to undo the lies of worthlessness or failure; a perspective that is outside of our personal lived experience to widen our view and include more diversity and honestly to our version of what happened; a word of truth from the Spirit of our living God to invite us back to seeing ourselves and our purposes from his wholistic and compassionate viewpoint.

We need each other here. Both to remember well ourselves, and also to continually help one another stay on track with the truest version of who we are and what God is doing in his wide-reaching story of love and redemption. I think that this is one of the most important roles and tasks of the church, the people of God gathered together to remember these truths again. This remember will shape us, ground us, and compel us forward as the children of God.

Remembering takes time. The slide projector is not what we’d call an efficient machine, but it’s somewhat clunky approach created the space, the time, the pause, that was needed to remember well.
How do we create space to remember? To soak in the truths about who we are and what we’ve been called to? How do we take the opportunities before us to say yes to remembering again, and to reminding each other to come back to the centre of what is true, and honourable, what is right and lovely?

The way that we remember is constantly informing who we are becoming.

The narratives that we tell ourselves and we repeat to those around us are transforming us into who we will be.

Today, this is what I want to remember:

We are fully known and loved by God, exactly as we are today.
We are invited to participate with God in bringing his love and welcome to those around us, exactly where we are today.
We can choose to be attentive to the ways God is continually re-creating us to be more like him, to have a deeper understanding of the story he is writing, and to be more firmly rooted in the deep truths of who he has called us to be.

Lord Jesus, we need each other, and we need you here.
Help us to remember I pray.