DON'T FORGET TO REMEMBER

To forget is human.

We are nothing if not forgetting machines.

Lunch plans. Zoom calls. Anniversary dates.

We forget everything all the time.

The strange thing is that this tendency isn’t limited to the ordinary details of life. It’s deeply spiritual.

A couple of weeks ago I was reading through Exodus while preparing a sermon and noticed something I’d somehow never seen before.

In chapter 14 God parts the Red Sea. Israel walks through on dry ground while Pharaoh’s army disappears beneath the water.

What a story.

The next chapter opens with singing. Miriam grabs a tambourine. Moses leads the people in worship. It’s one of the great celebrations in all of Scripture.

Then three days pass.

Three.

Israel is thirsty. The water they find is bitter. And almost immediately they begin to grumble.

Sometimes I imagine that if God would just do one undeniable miracle in my life I’d trust him forever.

Exodus suggests otherwise.

Isn’t it remarkable how quickly crisis returns? How quickly fear pushes gratitude out of the room?

Apparently you can walk through a sea on dry ground and still forget who God is by Thursday.

Pressure has a way of revealing what is already living in our hearts.

I think Exodus is trying to teach us something about human beings.

We forget.

More specifically, we forget God.

We forget his faithfulness. We forget his deliverance. We forget the prayers he answered only days before. Even miracles have a surprisingly short shelf life in the human memory.

Maybe that’s why, on the night before his death, Jesus took bread, lifted the cup, and said, “Remember me.”

Not simply because remembering is sentimental, but because it is essential.

He tied remembrance to eating and drinking—the two things we do every single day to stay alive.

As though he were saying, Make remembering as instinctive as your next meal.

How long can a person go without food?

Without water?

Without remembering?

Maybe not nearly as long as we think.