Story of God at Work in Our Remembrance
Two years ago, I was making the routine drive back to Pullman with a friend after a holiday break, and God spoke to me clearly amidst the mundane. It was as if He were saying, “Hannah, I’m calling you to remember.” My brain jumped to a surface-level response, and I wrote this down in my notes app and replied to God superficially, “Yeah, of course!”
I didn’t know why God was asking me to remember, what exactly He was asking me to recall, or when He wanted me to put that into practice, but I couldn’t shake this heart posture of recollection the Lord was inviting me into.
Circumstantially, the past few years have been tough. My heart slowly grew weary, and my mind began to insecurely believe in the truth about who our God is and who I am in light of that.
From my dad having cancer to family friends passing, being in the room with friends who’re on the receiving end of phone calls where they were told their family member had passed or got into an accident, losing large ministry partnerships, heartbreak, discipleship troubles, family arguments, and much more; the enemy was at work, but so was our God. Was He asking me to remember these points of pain? If so, why? For what?
After coming down from the heightened emotions of these experiences, I would always feel the spirit bringing me back to the idea of remembrance, rather a call to it. With my tendency to avoid hard emotions and press forward for the sake of progress, remembering wasn’t something I wanted to do. Although God was calling me to it, I knew it would mean recalling both the fun trips abroad and wholesome memories, but the heartwrenching, discouraging, and traumatic ones, too. In doing so, I realized that remembrance isn’t just about my circumstances but actually about who God is. We see the triumph of God’s might, the tenderness of His love, and the perfection of His power when we remember what He delivered us from and, even more importantly, what He’s delivering us into. While I was slowly getting a grip on the type of remembrance God was calling me to, I didn’t quite understand the whole picture until Sunday evening of Resonate Conference this past January.
I walked into this final session of the conference exhausted and expectant. My feet ached, my back was sore, and my posture was horrible as my body compensated for the thousands and thousands of steps in somewhat comfortable footwear that had taken place leading and coordinating an event of this scale.
As the session unfolded, people began to share stories of how God has been at work in their lives, delivering them from darkness and into redemption. People of different ages, experiences, and backgrounds vulnerably shared as a room of over 800 people listened. The celebrating didn’t stop at the sharing of stories but into a time of uninhibited worship. As I stood off to the side, taking it all in, I heard the faint whisper of the Lord, “See, this is why we remember.”
“The celebrating didn’t stop at the sharing of stories but into a time of uninhibited worship. As I stood off to the side, taking it all in, I heard the faint whisper of the Lord, “See, this is why we remember.” “
As Christians, we have a reason to praise, always, even in the driest of deserts or deepest of heartache. Our eyes are fixed on what is to come, our gaze fixed on the glory that is to appear, and our minds remember what God has already done because of who He is. Familiarizing yourself with the character of Christ leads to a deep adoration of who He is despite who we are, leading us to genuine praise and worship. That is exactly what I saw in the last session of ResCon, both on the sidelines and as I sat next to the women in my village, many of which decided to take their faith seriously and submit to the will of God more than they ever have before. Enduring joy isn’t just for the believer but is coming after those He is chasing after, too. I witnessed this as I watched one of the unbelieving freshmen my village brought to the conference start the weekend, disengaged in a session and, over the following day or two, left conference singing wholeheartedly to worship songs they had never heard of before. The enduring joy found in Christ alone is infectious.
Endurance is for the moments of pain. We must remember that our God not only can, but desires to bring joy from our pain, turn our mourning into dancing, and bring the dead back to life. God has been at work and continues to be right before our very eyes. May we be a people familiar with the movement of our Father from the Old to the New Testament, throughout the rest of history, and in the small and vast moments of our day-to-day. As we reflect on His steadfast faithfulness and redeeming grace, may we adore Him more, and may that adoration always lead us to arms raised, voice loud, full mouth grinning, weepy-eyed worship.
