Don't Forget to Remember

Today I started reading a book to help me in my studies for a sermon series in August.  I’ll be honest, I rarely read the “Acknowledgements.”  But for some reason, this time, I did and I am so glad.  The name leaped off the page at me, “Jeffery Wittung…at Baker Academic.”  You see, I may not be that smart, but I had at least one friend (no offense to any of my other friends) who had a brilliant mind and his name was Jeff Wittung.  I say “had” because Jeff died from injuries sustained in a car accident in 2010.  All it took was seeing his name on that book page to have my mind opened to remember. 

I first met Jeff at Mount Vernon Nazarene University.  We were both religion majors so we knew of each other, but it was not until our senior year that we really began to connect.  I remember on our graduation day we made plans for him to drive from his home in Van Wert to mine in Miamisburg so we could take a road trip to visit Nazarene Theological Seminary.  Needless to say, we got to know each other very well, very fast in that long, boring ride across the heart of America.  Before we left Kansas City, we put down a deposit on an apartment at Knob Hill and registered for classes at NTS in the fall.  For the next three years we shared that apartment and became good friends.  We graduated and I had the honor of being the best man in Jeff and Marne’s wedding. 

Of course, time rolls on and lives get busy, but Jeff and I would occasionally connect and pick up right where we left off.  Jeff was a loyal friend who possessed and called forth a depth in a relationship that few other friendships seem to have the courage to allow let alone invite.

And then, like it was some horrible nightmare I could not awaken from, I learned that Jeff was in critical condition.  I talked with his wife, videotaped the sermon for Sunday and made it to the hospital just hours before he passed from this life to the next. 

All of that and more comes flooding back just from seeing a few words on a page.  Sometimes it is good to , isn’t it?  I have so many memories of Jeff that are so good; times of laughing, praying, talking and just hanging out together.  It is good to remember the good.  But it is also sometimes painful to remember, isn’t it?  Seeing Jeff lying in the hospital, with his wife crying and the pictures that his little girls had colored to decorate his room still breaks my heart.  Nevertheless, I am convinced that remembering, even when it is painful, is healthy.  Because just because we have trained ourselves to forget something does not mean we are any freer from the pain of it. 

This weekend we celebrate a holiday that is all about remembering.  I remember when my Grandpa and Grandma would spend the weekend driving around South West Ohio placing flowers on graves.  At each stop, they would remember…they would remember the person, the good and the painful.  I wonder how many people of my generation truly appreciate “Memorial Day?”  I wonder for how many of us it is merely a day off work and cook-out on the deck…nothing wrong with a day off and having a meal with friends and family, but I can’t help but wonder what happens when a generation forgets to remember. It just seems it is difficult to know who you are if you do not remember who and how you got to be who you are.  It just seems it is difficult to truly move forward, or at least to go anyplace worth going to, if you have not taken the time to learn or heal from your past. 

Whether all that is true or not for life, we do know it to be true for our relationship with God as individuals and as a church family.  The Hebraic concept of faith was not peering blindly into the future and expecting God to suddenly show up.  No, the Hebraic concept of faith was to walk into the future backwards.  With each step backwards into the future one would remember the faithfulness of God in the past and therefore have real hope in knowing that if God came through back then, he could surely come through again. 

The Psalmist writes, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago” (Psalm 77:11).  The context of that Psalm is one of lament and complaint.  The Psalmist begins by crying out for help and asking how long God will forget them.  However, then he remembers.  He remembers the deeds of the Lord in the past and by the end of the Psalm his remembrance has brought forth real hope and faith for his uncertain present and future.  Because he remembers who God was, he can believe who God is.

So, this Memorial Day weekend, I pray that we will have the courage to and will make the time to simply, but profoundly remember.  Who knows how the Father might use what he causes you to remember to unlock your future!