Daily Devotional – 5/29/12 “Are your memories worth remembering?”

With the Memorial Day Holiday on yesterday, it caused a lot of memories to be brought back of loved ones who are no longer here and even thoughts of servicemen and women who have served this country wholeheartedly and paid the ultimate sacrifice with their life. Some people visited cemeteries to pay their respect by leaving flowers, some enjoyed family time with members who were visiting from out of town and some even spent the much needed vacation at home doing nothing but it didn’t take away from the holiday. Many folks weren’t bothered by the 100 degree heat index to visit the grave-sites of those loved ones and they endured it all because their memory was worth every bead of sweat that formed on every part of their body. Now, my question to you is what memories will you leave behind? Will your memory be worth folks rising early in the morning to endure the heat to add flowers to your grave or will you be a passing thought as the family sits around after eating? Yea, I know you think because you’re young you got time to get it together and to get it right but the bible says in Matthew 24:36, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father,” so your eyes aren’t guaranteed to open on tomorrow no more than those of my 84 year old grandfather, so I ask again, what memories are you leaving? See, I’ve learned through the years that it really doesn’t matter about your date of birth or even your date of death because the dash in between the 2 is what speaks the most. Will you leave a memory of being someone who used to be that person no one wanted to see coming or the person that no one could go a day without coming to see? Will you be a person who allowed the world to change them or a person who changed the world to fit them? Will that dash be justified in the story that it tells about the life that you lived? If you have to worry about what folks are saying about you when you leave a room, your memories may be affected when you leave this earth. Are you willing to stand around and listen to what folks have to say about you because you know that even though you made some mistakes, in your life, you learned from them and became the person that God designed you to be or will you be too ashamed to hear people call you a liar, backstabber, gossiper, ditch digger and unfriendly? The bible tells us in Genesis 1:27, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” God didn’t create us to be anything other than a righteous person who strives to be like him. No, he didn’t say we wouldn’t make mistakes because he promised us trouble and with trouble come bad choices/mistakes, but he expects us to repent and learn from the mistakes we’ve made and will make so that we don’t make them again. Will you be perfect, no but this is why Psalm 34:19 says, “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all,” so, there isn’t an excuse for not making your dash count. So I ask again, will your memories be worth remembering?

You have to realize that although you don’t care what folks think now, those same folk have to eulogize you when you’re gone and I don’t want anyone standing over my casket lying about how much they loved me when they couldn’t stand the sight of me living. Even if you don’t love me, like me enough to tell me when I need to get it together and when I’m wrong. I want my memory to be worth remembering, don’t you? Yea, some of our dashes will be longer than others, depending on the years that we are given by God, but it doesn’t mean we work any less to make it count for something. Just because you think you’re all that and a bag of chips, it doesn’t mean the world does so stop walking around acting like your head only points upward because when it points down, you may not have anyone there willing to help you. Stop acting like your hand can’t reach out to help folks because when you become the one reaching out for help, you won’t find any. And if you think you won’t need anybody or that you’ll never fall, keep living. Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins.” See, those same folks whose shoulders you stood on to lift you up will be the same ones helping you back down when you fall. Those folks whose backs you walked over to cross the valley will be the same ones on their stomach pulling you back up when you fall down into your valley. And you will one day be in the valley because Job 5:7 says, “People are born for trouble as readily as sparks fly up from a fire.” However, folks will only talk about your time in the valley if you never try to get out of it. Oh, but if you come out rejoicing from the valley because it made you stronger, then they’ll remember you as being a fighter against the trials of this world. When you come out of your storm wet and clothes disheveled but not your spirit, folks will remember that. When you come out the fire with your clothes burned, not your spirit and with ashes on your face but not your faith, folks will remember this and this will be the memory they hold and not of you giving up and throwing in the towel when it became too much.

See, somebody can stand and say, “My dash will represent the new me because even though I used to be a drug addict, alcoholic or whoremonger; I committed myself back to God and he dipped my broken body in his blood and I came out clean and whole.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”) Someone can stand and say, “My dash will represent the new me because even though I used to lie, cheat and steal, God came into my life when I invited him and now I lie with him during the good and the bad and I only steal away when I need to pray.” (Revelation 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”) Somebody can say, “My dash will say even though I’ve made mistakes, God forgave me and he still forgives me for them over and over, if I ask. (1 John 1:9, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”) Someone can say, “I was once afraid to acknowledge God before folks that I knew but when I realized the power that he can place over my life, how he can bring me through storms, comfort me when friends are gone, heal me when sickness comes and send rest when I toss and turn at night, so I proudly proclaim to be a child of the king, no matter who is listening! (Luke 12:8, “I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God.) Your memories should be those bad things that you’ve made good and the good things you’ve made better. Your memories should be worth remembering to all those who come in contact with you even if only for a moment.

Will you always be perfect, no but no one is but that doesn’t mean you have to be the best at being the worst. Yea, sure you’ll have days that make you feel like throwing in the towel but that won’t be remembered if you take that same towel to wipe the sweat and keep on going. Will you always have days that make you smile, no, but those won’t be remembered if you don’t take your attitude out on others. When we mess up, God (the potter), take us (the clay), places us back on the wheel in order for him to smooth out the bumps that have formed in us. Then we are molded back into the shape that God wants us to be, placed back into the heat and its then we are able to withstand the heat, a little bit more. See, every time we ask for forgiveness and every time we go in the fire, we come out strong enough to handle being dropped and thrown around without breaking, that’s God remolding us which gives us time to make our dash count. Every time we fall and he allows us to get up or he heals our bodies, he is giving us a chance to make our dash count. Don’t allow your living to be in vain. Just because you’ve made a mistake or committed a sin on yesterday, repent for it, be forgiven and learn from it. Just because you feel the best you have in years, doesn’t mean today won’t be your last day because even on your well days, you are sick enough to die. Don’t wait until tomorrow to talk to God; don’t wait until Monday to start cleaning your life up, don’t wait until Sunday to talk to God and don’t wait until you’re lying on your death bed to confess your wrongs, start today. Forgive those who have hurt you, forget those who have walked away and haven’t looked back, love those that are in your life, help those who hands are out asking, pray for those who need it even if they never ask and tell all about the love of God. Your life has a meaning; the kind of meaning that it has, well that depends on you. Make it count! Make your memories be worth remembering by those you’ll leave behind!