Sunday, January 16, 2011

Do You Remember?

"Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting." ~Iris Murdock


Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy... A beautiful picture of redundant clarity.  


Over and over we read of the rescue from slavery, the plan for worship, the dimensions of the Tent of Meeting, the instruction for slaughter, and of the path to the promised land.  I'm reading it quickly, so things are becoming distinctly apparent that hid between the pages until now.  God rescued His people.  He taught them to worship.  He pointed them toward their purpose.  And then, He used man to tell the story of the rescue, to retell the instruction and remind them where they were going...again, and again, and again. (And again!)  I was tempted to skim over it.  The teacher inside me didn't see the purpose in wasting time reading something I fully absorbed the first time, but I harvested the fruit of self-control and found the beautiful lesson.  "Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting."   God used Moses to painstakingly repeat detail after detail, instruction after instruction and plan after plan so that they didn't fall out of love with their Creator.  After reminding them more times than they could count what He'd saved them from and telling until they could commit to memory the instructions they needed to worship Him and where they were going, He finally told them to write the words on their hearts, hands and foreheads.  And He told them more than once.  Why?  Why the redundancy?  Why did God continually repeat Himself?  Why didn't Moses roll his eyes and deliver the Reader's Digest version just once?  


Because falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting.


It's within us, you realize, to forget what God has done for us.  We're just arrogant enough, that if we're not careful, we'll allow our mindset to change until the hell that He rescued us from becomes nothing more than a sweet dose of nostalgia.  We're capable of deciding that, while He may very well have been present, it was probably a little more of our ingenuity than it was His intervention that brought us to where we stand today.  If we're not actively writing it on our hearts and our hands and our foreheads, we'll forget to tell our children the beautiful redemption stories that God whispered as He designed our lives.  


So, fill your homes with stories that tell of His goodness.   Remind your parents of His faithfulness.  Raise your sons to boast in His strength. Show your daughters what He's taught your heart about beauty.  Remind yourself what it felt like to be an orphan.  Write it on your heart. Tie it on your hand.  Bind it to your forehead.  


Because, after all, Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting. 



What are you determined not to forget?  If He's rescued you from slavery, taught you what it means to worship or shown you your purpose, please share it with us in a comment.  Never underestimate the power of your testimony!



 



5 comments:

  1. So much wisdom here; I've come back to read this twice already :) I will never forget how He chased me, pursued me, wooed me when I walked away...how He restored me, redeemed me, loved me when He brought me back...how He has blessed me, provided for me, and cherished me as His Bride!

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  2. Lisa, you are a constant source of encouragement to me!

    I don't intend to forget either. I want to be forever mindful of who I was before. I want to wake up in the morning with a sigh of relief that my Redemption really did come and I'm not scrambling to dig up something that resembles happiness anymore. I want to be able to tick off on my fingers every single account of being rescued from some form of slavery or another. And I want to walk my family into the promised land... But I won't do any of that if I'm not intentional with my mind. I truly must hold my thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ, or I, like the Israelites, will look back at my past with longing and forget what my Father has done.

    I'm nothing without Him...

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  3. Sue, what an awesome post. Words can not describe what i am feeling inside as I read these words. Its like you wrote this post directed to me without knowing it.
    I feel that GOD is still chasing me, because at times I have only given half of myself to him and kept half of myself completely and utterly involved in worldy things, which I know is NOT what Wants or intends for my life.
    The first time I read this, I was reminded of a past where mistakes were made that I will NEVER EVER forget. Things that no matter what Grace and Mercy GOD has shown/given me and even though I know I am completely forgiven, I am still reminded of. Its a constant struggle for me, and I know as some point I just have to let it go.
    GOD has brought me up from and is still today bringing me up from a place that I never want to forget, but never want to go back to.
    My life has been changed so much over the past year and a half and I never intend to go back to that place, but never will or want to forget what GOD has done....

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  4. Hi, I'm stopping by from Group #17 in the B90 Challenge!

    May you feel blessed in this week's reading :)

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  5. Great post Sue. I'll never forget that He waited patiently for me to decide I needed Him, He didn't need me, I wasn't doing Him any favor... I desperately needed Him. So many things He has brought us through over the years, I never forget His mercies!

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