How Would You Like To Be Remembered?

There is nothing that makes you feel old like going to the graduation of someone you knew when they were an infant. This weekend, I headed back to Indiana. I spent five years on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. This weekend, sweet Elizabeth graduated.

I lived with Elizabeth and her family for three years during that time. Elizabeth was just two when I moved in. We spent the next three years reading stories, going to the park, playing tag, and making cookies with her sister, Hannah, and later her brother, Jonathon. Her sister Sarah didn't come along until after I had headed to Illinois. I didn't get to know her. But I did enjoy hanging with her this weekend.

All weekend I found myself wishing I had kept in better contact with this great family. Though I do feel old that Elizabeth is now 18 and heading off to college, I was touched by the fond memories we shared.

Some of the things that we mentioned (aside from those mentioned above) remembering were things like the butterfly shaped birthday cake I made and Elizabeth helped decorate one year. Some of it was how Elizabeth screamed as an infant -- especially in the car. Her dad seemed bent on remembering the temperature. I am cold by nature and I lived in the basement. It's always colder in basements. He lamented not making it warmer for me. But honestly, that wasn't even close to things that readily came to my mind. There were too many good things from living there that stick out to me.

I was surprised by some of the things that people mentioned about me. Becca was also graduating. Her family came to Elizabeth's open house. They reminded me how she was so attached to her mom that she screamed when she was left in the nursery or with a sitter to the point that they just didn't leave her. I had forgotten volunteering to go spend some time with her and her brother over several days while their mom was present so she could get use to me. The idea was to make me a safe person so her parents could get out a bit.

I was touched by the warmth of the memories. It was affirming. I don't know how my time in Illinois measures up. It makes me want to strive to be that person again. Right now, I am so busy with two jobs and such that I wonder if the memories that would dominate now would be rushing off somewhere. But what stood out then was a kind of taking time for people. Somehow, I want to find away to get back to that. That's how I want to be remembered at every stage of life and not just one sliver.

That is my prayer tonight, that I would be known as one who takes time for people.

How would you like to be remembered?

Sarah, Asher the dog, Elizabeth, Hannah, & Jonathon

If You Remember This, Then ....

Last night I was at the bookstore. Somehow, a manager and I got on the topic of shows we watched when we were kids. Yes, this will date me, but here is the list. Which do you remember?

• School House Rocks as seen as part of Saturday morning cartoons -- Who says cartoons can't teach you anything? "I'm just a bill . . . ."
• Smufs -- Little blue people....
• Life before remotes -- Yes, once upon a time you had to get up to change the channel. Should I mention we only had 3 plus the local PBS channel to choose from?
• Life before microwaves -- If cooking is so much faster now, how come I still don't have any time? And how come I love my slow cooker?
• Real FLOPPY disks -- Yes, there was a reason for the "floppy" part.
• Road Runner, Tom & Jerry, and Bugs Bunny
• Life before internet -- Seriously, how did we connect?
• Rotary phones and having to answer to find out who is calling
  
• When the "original" Star Wars special effects were truly awe inspiring
• Going to the bank and having a pass book for your savings account
• Writing a paper on a typewriter
• PONG
  

What can you add to the list? If you remember most of that stuff, well, I hate to tell you, but we are both getting old.

If you don't remember any of it, I don't even want to hear it!

Remember

In high school and college, I discovered the trick for learning lists of things was using a mnemonic device. Basically, you line up the beginning of letters of each word to form a word or, failing the ability to do that, making up a silly sentence in the same way. One that we probably all learned in elementary school is for the names of the Great Lakes, HOMES: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. It associates hard to remember items with easy to remember ones, creating a series of links.

Over the summer I've been rereading C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. In the Silver Chair, Eustace and Jill are called into Narnia by Aslan. Eustace has been before, but the two get separated. So, Jill meets Aslan on her own. He gives her a task: to find a lost prince and bring him home or die trying or have been called back to her own world.


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Mountaintops in Perspecitve -- Hope Chronicles 51

The last few weeks, my She Speaks prep has consumed my time and energy. As I write that, I am struck by the thought, "When have you let God consume so much of your time and energy?" Hopefully, it was for God's glory, but so much time an energy went into the book proposal and the talks and the packing and the fretting over being liked or not liked while I was there, . . . . Now, I am post She Speaks by four days.

In my InterVarsity Christian Fellowship days, I often found there to be an immediate slump after big events. I would be tired and grouchy and irritable. While I admit, I'm starting to have a bit of a slump (I'm a bit on the touchy side today), there was none of the immediate, overwhelming deflation that I have previously encountered. I'm not sure why that is and it isn't that God didn't meet me in those earlier events. I believe He did.

But I experienced something profound this past weekend -- God utterly delighting over me. I know He probably always has, but still it was so sweet . . . . Part of me didn't want the conference to end. I half thought moving to NC might not be so bad or maybe I could join some of my bloggy friends in their neck of the woods. But then I would miss my friends and church here.

She Speaks was a mountaintop experience. But I have learned that most of us do not live on "mountaintops." While those times are refreshing and wonderful, most of us are called to live out our walk in the daily things of life: mowing the grass, interacting with coworkers, doing the laundry, making dinner, running errands, . . . . These things may make us say, "Can't the mountaintop experience go on forever?"

Scripture tells us that Moses met with God as a man meets with a friend. Yet, even Moses had to come down from the mountaintop and he was greeted with God's Chosen People dancing around an idol and grumbling about how much better life back in Egypt was. (They were a thankless lot!)

And then there is Elijah. 1 Kings 18 and 19 Elijah sees God work in mighty ways. But he freaks when the king's wife takes a bounty out on his head. (Okay, I might have been worried too.) He flees and God eventually leads Him to a cave on a mountain. He actually whines (in my opinion) to God. My version: "I've done all this for you and they've killed all these people and I am the only one left. Did you hear me? Now they are going to kill me!"

God does not get into a test of wills with Elijah. Rather, God tells him to "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by." There is a great wind that shattered rocks, an earthquake, and a fire. But God is not in any of these. But then there is a gentle whisper and Elijah stands at the mouth of the cave and God gives him a glimpse of Himself.

And God asks again, "Elijah, what are you doing here?"

Elijah repeats the litany.

God responds, "Go back the way you came." (Get back to day to day life). He goes on to promise that he is sending Elijah a partner and that Elijah is not alone -- there are 7,000 who still worship God.

So, post She Speaks means getting back to day to day life.

But it also means remembering all that God did there. Just as God reminded Elijah of the 7,000, I am praying He will continue to remind me of all that I learned and experienced and the fellowship I experienced. I've been making a list. It's now 5 journal pages with bullets to help remind me when things get tough.

Like Moses and Elijah, most of us are not meant to live on mountaintops. But we are called to remember them. And through remembering them we can be strengthened in the day to day life and even in the valleys. It is in remembering that we often find that glorious thing called hope.

If you went to She Speaks or even if you didn't, what is one strengthening memory you have? Please leave it here in the comment section or a link to the story on your site. I look forward to hearing how God uses the mountaintops to prepare you for day to day life.