Remembering

"Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent.  But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you."  (Revelation 3:3)

This weekend, we will attend parades, services, and family gatherings to both remember and celebrate.  We remember those who sacrificed their lives for our freedoms, and we celebrate that freedom.  As the saying goes, with freedom comes responsibility, and one of those responsibilities should be remembering.

Most of us understand that the freedoms we enjoy in this country are due to countless sacrifices throughout history that continue today.  Those who died in battle, those who were injured, those who kept the homefront afloat, and those who lost spouses, parents, children and siblings along the way... It seems they have all been swept into nice, neat, typewritten summaries in textbooks collecting dust on shelves.  Too easily lost and forgotten are the intimate details of those lives, the circumstances of those sacrifices, and the many ways (both subtle and profound) that life and human history have been forever changed by them.  It doesn't seem quite respectful or patriotic enough to simply recognize that.  We should dare to expose ourselves to those stories, to allow their collective weight to soak into our bones.

Not only is it important to seek and to appreciate the full story of our history as a nation, it is also important to learn from that history.  If our past is an important part of how and why we've arrived at where we are, then so too is it an important part of where we go from here.  It is one of the best ways we can honor those who gave their lives for us.

The same holds true for the sacrifice God made for our ultimate freedom.  Over 200 verses in the Bible contain the word "remember."  Some of those verses call on us to remember God's sacrifice of His Son on the cross, but many of them call on us to remember the plight of mankind throughout human history - what happened to folks when they chose to remember and keep God's commands, and what happened to folks when they chose to forget or deny God.  There's a very good reason that all those stories are included in the Bible.  It's so that we can better understand our ultimate purpose in life - to love and to serve the Lord, to remember Him.  Nothing could be more important.

All of the Bible is about our Lord Jesus.  As we are all part of God's creation, all of our lives, our stories, and our choices are ultimately about Him.  Amid all the festivities this Memorial Day weekend, let us remember to...remember that.

To all of you reading this who have served our country and have sacrificed for the freedoms we enjoy, my sincerest thanks to you.  God bless you.
 

Like the Wind

"The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."  (John 3:8)

Within the dense woods rounding out my parents' three-acre property stands a stunning sycamore tree that I long ago claimed as "my tree."  It stands nearly twice as tall as any other tree surrounding it.  It reflects the first of the sun's rays at dawn and the last of its rays at dusk.  But the quality I most admire about this tree is that its leaves respond harmoniously to the slightest breeze.  I like to say that the leaves twinkle, since the sunlight often bounces off them in glorious patterns, much like the ripples of a lake or river do.  When a storm comes, the long limbs of the tree bend until it seems they will break, but they never do.  When the storm is over, the gentle twinkling of the leaves continues, curiously brighter than before.

This is how I imagine the Holy Spirit living and working in us.  We are like the tree, stunning members of God's glorious creation, standing tall as one of His children.  The love of Christ is like the sun, providing the light and life we require for health, contentment and salvation.  The Holy Spirit is like the breeze, moving us in glorious patterns to reflect the light of God's love like a beacon for all among us.  And the storm is like the tests and trials we face in life, from which we discover in our faithfulness our inner strength, emerging cleansed and inspired to reflect God's love more brightly and completely than before.

The wind has a considerable impact on human life, from providing cooling comfort on a hot day to harming people and property during gales.  The wind storm this area endured in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike in 2008 was proof of just how quickly and easily the wind can change our paths and alter our perspectives.  All of this is quite amazing, considering that we cannot see the wind, only the effects of the wind.  The same holds true of the Holy Spirit.  One cannot see it, but one can certainly feel it and experience the effect of its movement.  It cannot be controlled; rather, it does the controlling.  Like the trees, we who are filled with the Holy Spirit bend, move, reflect and act in obediance and faithfulness.  Much as the heart sees to it that blood flows throughout the body, the Holy Spirit sees to it that we have the power required to act according to God's will.

I cannot imagine my parents' property without my favorite sycamore tree, nor can I imagine my life without the Holy Spirit living within me and directing my path.  With the power of the Holy Spirit moving us from within, we have the capacity (and the responsibility) to impact the world around us through our obediance to that power.  Exactly how that unfolds for each of our lives is something only God fully knows.  At the very least, we know that we can daily choose to reflect God's love and be a cooling breeze for someone suffering from the many ills and discomforts of this life.

Twinkle on, friends.