Looking back, giving thanks

Looking back, giving thanks.

This morning I awakened to a sunny day, with a light cool breeze in the air.  I grabbed my skates, jumped in my car and headed for North Beach.¹  Parking, I put on my skates, set my Itunes to some great music and then skated over to Baby Beach (Dana Point) and back, which took me just about an hour.  It was great—partially because a lot of folks were out and about, and there was a feeling in the air of the day being special.  Indeed, flags were flying everywhere, as today is Memorial Day!  It is the day we set aside in America to honor and remember those who have served our country, in many cases paying the ultimate price with their lives ~ all in an effort to maintain our freedom.

This is the day the Lord has made . . .  I will rejoice and be glad in it!²  The psalmist said it, but my heart is right there with him today. On this the Memorial Day weekend, I wish to proclaim this day as another kind of Memorial Day—our Spiritual Memorial Day!  You do not have to have a parade around your neighborhood, but I propose that you STOP and REMEMBER God’s faithfulness in your life. 

In fact, in Joshua chapter Four, the Lord instructed Joshua to have his men choose stones . . . each one to serve as a memorial for the times God had shown himself faithful to his people.  And then, when their children asked about the stones, they would serve as monuments of God’s faithfulness, and give them a chance to talk to their children about the goodness of God. 

And so, as I skate along the Pacific Coast Highway—right next to the waters of the Pacific Ocean, the waves continue to roll into shore, one after another, and I consider the monuments I might erect—monuments of God’s faithfulness for which I am thankful, and choose to remember this day, my Spiritual Memorial Day.

Looking back a long way, I remember and am thankful to God  . . .

~that I was raised by a woman who loved and revered God—my mother—who gave birth to me when she was 45 years old.  (okay, that was old in 1960)

~because I remember the numerous Christian teachers I had, who spanned many years—Sunday School teachers, classroom teachers, my youth leaders and pastors—who modeled Christ in some capacity to me

I am thankful to God

~for the development of a Christian perspective from an early age that became a solid worldview as I became an adult….such that:

I BELIEVE the Bible is the Word of God – the way I can learn about God and his character - who he is, what he does, what he thinks of me, and what he wants for me.

I BELIEVE that God is sovereign.  He has a plan for the world, and a unique purpose for me.  While I am invited to spend eternity with him—BEGINNING RIGHT NOW—he does not force himself or his will on me.  I am free to choose, free to love whoever I will.

I BELIEVE that God gives all of his children gifts.  AND if I choose to understand, apprehend and exercise mine, I will know true adventure that is unparalleled in the world!  To love God is to serve him and serve others . . . Those two pillars, loving God and serving others, form my priorities, (at least they should!)  ‘See, when I shape my priorities by these, then come what may, I know contentment.  My dear uneducated, simple mother was a study in contentment . . . not because she didn’t know better, (she wasn’t that simple!), and not because her life was easy, (because it wasn’t), but because she formed her life and spent her days with those two priorities always in sight: ‘today, I will serve God—love him, talk to him, listen to him, see what he wrote in his Word, trust him, and live like I think he would have me’ …  Okay, that IS simple living, or a simplified life.

On this, your Spiritual Memorial Day~

  I charge you to

REMEMBER how merciful God has been to you. 

REMEMBER how he has forgiven you when you sinned, even when you knew better, and in your self-centeredness, chose to go your own way. 

He has never given up on you,

    never stopped loving you, and what’s more than that,

            he forgave you and then … get this,

                   in his MERCY, he has chosen to use you (and me!) in little ways and not-so-little ways to impact our world for him.

That is radical.

Really, when it all comes down to it, I REMEMBER . . .  and in remembering, THANK GOD for who he is, and that because of who he is, he just keeps on loving me.  He is faithful.  Because he is faithful,  I REMEMBER how he has answered my prayers.  Oh man, I can look back at my lined notebooks, filled with written prayers, and then the answers that came . . . the answers that followed.

So, on this my Spiritual Memorial Day, I look back, REMEMBER, and thank God, from whom all blessings flow.