Remembering
Every couple of months I get asked to speak at our church’s ladies’ group. Last month when I spoke, the woman in charge asked if I would come back in April. I said yes. As I worked on my message/devotional, I decided I would talk about remembering.
Remembering is a key component of worship in the Bible. When Moses and the Israelites were about enter the Promised Land, they stopped and recounted/remembered all that God had done for them. We see the same thing in the Psalms (78 is an example). And of course, for Christians, the ultimate example of remembering is Communion. Etched on most communion tables are the words “this do in remembrance of me”. Every time we partake of communion, we remembered the life, death, and sacrifice of Jesus. In counseling, particularly couple’s counseling, remembering is often a tool used to bring back the feelings and emotions that are lost or misplaced. I would encourage the ladies to remember and tell stories, of their marriages, of their childhood, of their encounters with God. By remembering and retelling the stories over and over again, the emotions, events and encounters would never be forgotten.
And so, as an example, I was going to tell the ladies the story of my wedding day, that was a day with an ice storm and a psychotic cat. Perfect! Fine! That is the basic outline of my message.
So yesterday, I am sitting at home, working on my novel and watching an episode of Bones, when the phone rang.
“Hi Amanda, it’s Dorothy.”
“Hi, Dorothy.”
“Um, are you coming to speak today?”
Oh crap! It was quarter past ten, and I was supposed to be there for ten. I quickly hung up, threw on a pair of jeans and ran for the bus! As I threw myself into a seat on the bus, I started to laugh. I had chosen to speak on remembering, and I had forgotten that Wednesday was the day I was supposed to do it!
The ladies got a hoot out of it. But as I was walking home, I couldn’t help but remember, that many times in Scripture, forgetting is equated with sinning against God. (“They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.” Psalm 78:11).
Thank goodness we live under grace, and I am learning more and more that God has a wicked sense of humour and found the event of yesterday quite amusing.
Tags: Devotional, Ministry, personal, Remembering
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.