This Lent Remember to Forget...

Below is my monthly contribution to Bread for the Day.

"Has his steadfast love ceased forever? Are his promises at an end for all time?

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”

- Psalm 77

Remember.
Remember...that you are dust and to dust you shall return. (note to self...remember this. it seems important.)
Remember...the person God has made you to be. (not to self...figure out exactly what this means.)
Remember...to call Norma, Sara, and Sara with an H. (I know you hate making phone calls, but you can't put this off anymore. just do it. it's not that bad.)
Remember...to send an email reminder to students about this weekend's vocational event.
Remember...to actually get this YouTube channel off the ground.
Remember...to buy more toothpaste.
Remember...to forget.

Forget.
Forget...what the world has taught you about what success looks like.
Forget...that power is a force to be exerted over others.
Forget...the idea that all you have is not enough.
Forget...about taking Friday off this week.
Forget...the idea that this was going to be the semester where I stay ahead of the game. 

There is much to remember and much to forget. For us…and for God. Today the psalmist pleads with God to remember. To remember to be gracious and compassionate. The psalmist points back to what God has done in the past; leading the people, time and again, through the wilderness, through uncertainty and fear. Today the psalmist tells God to remember that this is what God does. God remembers. God remembers to be gracious, to be compassionate, to...forget. 

Anytime we speak of God remembering, my mind always goes to Jeremiah when God promises to forget the people's sins. Not to set them aside or disregard them, but God promises to forget them altogether. It is one of the mysteries of the faith that ultimately our hope is tied up in God's promise to remember...to forget. 

The season of Lent is a season of self-examination. It is a time set aside to consider what's important to us. What should we remember and what should we forget? Who is it, exactly, that God has made us to be? These are difficult questions, but we are not alone in wrestling with them. With the whole people of God we will remember and forget over the next forty days. May we begin this journey boldly, held by the promise that holds us all along our paths. Held by the promise of the God who always remembers to forget. 

peace,

z