Remember

I cry out, “My splendor is gone!  Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!”  The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words.  I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss.

Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”     Lamentations 3:18-24 NLT

I did a lot of driving last week...

We have a family reunion in Alabama every third Saturday of July.  Lots of factors went into the decision of whether or not to attend this year, but ultimately, I made it. 

The journey began on Wednesday with a drive from Ocala, Florida to Brevard, North Carolina where my mom lives.  Though she is perfectly capable of driving herself places, I am not comfortable with her driving alone from North Carolina to Alabama.  So, I went to pick her up and drive her down.  

Thursday was spent debating the wisdom of going to Alabama after all.  Several family members were ill, so we knew that turnout for the reunion would be low.  It was a long way to drive knowing that we would miss seeing a lot of people.  Ultimately, we decided that we would rather see some of the family than to see none of the family, and so we determined to go.

Friday found us driving to my cousin's house near Birmingham.  We stayed the night there, enjoying a lovely visit.

Up early Saturday morning and we were off to Lawley, the site of the annual gathering.  We enjoyed the day visiting with family members and eating too much food.  We walked a bit in the cemetery, visiting my Daddy's grave, and then we got back on the road.  We arrived back in North Carolina right around midnight.

Sunday morning, I loaded up and headed for home.  I found myself at home in Florida around 9pm, tired, but thankful to have been able to make the journey.

I include all those details basically to make the point that I spent four days of the past six on the road.  More specifically, on each of my four days of driving, I passed the site of our bus accident from a few years ago.  

I believe it was around 2005 (?) that we were traveling in our first bus from North Carolina to Georgia when we were struck from behind by an 18-wheeler.  That event became a significant marker in our Jeremiah 29:11 Ministries journey.  We began to remember things based on whether they had happened before or after "the awful thing."  Thankfully, despite the intensity of the accident, we walked away from that day with no serious injuries.  But our lives were pretty upside-down for a while.

Traditional wisdom dictates that we should try our best to forget the bad times of the past.  I struggle with that because I have a brain that works overtime to remember troublesome details while quickly forgetting more important things - like the name of the person I met 30 seconds ago!  In Philippians 3:13, Paul even suggests that there is wisdom in forgetting the past to look ahead.

But the prophet Jeremiah recognized that there was also some value in remembering.  Jeremiah saw some really bad stuff and experienced very difficult circumstances in his life.  It was truly "an awful time" for him.  He acknowledges in Lamentations that he cannot forget the bad things that happened to him.  It's kind of right in the title of the book...

But --

Even in his grief, Jeremiah had hope.  He was not blind to his circumstances.  He didn't adopt a "positive mental attitude" approach to life.  He did not try to pretend that everything was fine when it definitely was not.  

But Jeremiah remembered the nature of God. 

He remembered the bad, but he also remembered the good.  Jeremiah remembered that God's faithfulness was not negated by his own circumstances.  Jeremiah recognized that his present situation was not all that existed.  

When the prophet took an objective look at his life, he did not say, "Everything is great!"  Things were not at all okay.  Jeremiah hurt, and he grieved.  

He acknowledged reality.

Personally, I am prone to only go halfway when I try to be "realistic" in my assessment of life.  I look at the circumstances of my life and my world, and my response is basically, "Yeah, it really is pretty bad.  But it is what it is."

It is what it is.

That's my go-to phrase in this season.  I hear a lot of other people making that acknowledgement too.

Circumstances are what they are.  The world is pretty messed up.  Our country is definitely a hot mess!

But you know what else "is what it is"?

God.  He is the original I Am.  And He has not changed because He does not change.  He is Who He is!  

It is the nature of God to be faithful.  It is His nature to love.  And His mercies are new each day.

And so, whatever the circumstances, we can have hope.

Every time I drive past the weigh stations on I-85 in north Georgia, I remember the awful thing that happened there.  I remember a day filled with all kinds of fear, frustration, uncertainty, and pain.  But then I remember that even in that circumstance, my God was faithful.  He has not changed.  

He will not change.

And so, this day, let me encourage you - it's okay to remember.  It's legitimate, even as a Christ-follower, to acknowledge that your life may not be going exactly the way you'd expected.  Feeling frustrated and disappointed doesn't make you a bad Christian.  It makes you an honest human.

Just be sure as you are remembering that you do not stop halfway through the process.  Life is hard, yes.  But God is faithful, always.

Hope in Him.

...Just a thought...