The Power of Remembering

On this Thanksgiving eve, I'm finding it unnatural in my flesh to be thankful. The message at my church this past Sunday was about remembering our blessings and God's victories in our lives. It was a very powerful message for me, particularly in this season I'm in.

There is power in remembrance. The literal meaning of remembering is different than we're conditioned to think. It is not so much the opposite of forgetting, but the opposite of dismembering. In other words, when we remember something, it's actually reattaching something which was once part of us. We're re-membering.

With this in mind, I want to think upon those things which are part of my history. They're part of me which simply need to be reattached to make me whole and grateful.

I am thankful for my parents. I cannot imagine who I would be right now were they not the people they are. I'm so thankful that I can spend another Thanksgiving with both of them. I don't know how many we have left together, so I don't want to take it for granted.

I'm thankful to have been born in this wonderful country. We shamefully complain so much, and yet we have it so much better than people in, for instance, Darfur. People today, today, are enslaved and murdered for reasons we cannot even imagine from our ivory towers. I just got Schindler's List on Netflix and started watching it recently. Talk about a reminder of the blessings we have today to live in freedom, free from persecution. No, things aren't perfect. Yes, we're seeing some frightening changes in some of our freedoms. But we don't have to fear being pulled out of homes and put in prisons, or put to death because of our faith.

I'm thankful for the roof over my head and the car I drive. I know there are so many who have neither. So many hooked on drugs and living on the streets.

Ultimately, I'm thankful for God. I am so unworthy of all I've been given. I have so much which has absolutely nothing to do with my own merit. I have been spoiled throughout my life with all the comforts I take for granted. The fact that I'm able to sit at a computer and type this is the result of innumerable blessings.

I'm not yet where I want to be. But I believe that I'm one step closer today than I was yesterday. And as I re-member the path I've traveled to be who and where I am today, I truly believe that on Thanksgiving eve 2009, I'll be that much closer.