Memory and Hope

It was Christmas Day and the morning news shows were on the television. Meredith Viera was interviewing Rick Warren, the pastor of the Saddleback Church in California. Warren spoke of how his family asks two questions on Christmas Day: what am I grateful for from the year past and what will I give Jesus for his birthday in the year ahead?

I loved these questions and I began to think about the answers for myself. I found myself enumerating things like--opportunities to practice fearlessness and undaunted courage, chances to know the pain of grief and the powerful ways that people I've lost have touched my life, moments of sheer faith when I trusted so completely that all I needed was for God to show the next step; loving parents who take their wayward daughter in and love her no matter what!; flailing that reminds me of my humanity and calls me to live more as the spiritual being having a human experience that I am; forgiveness from special friends who suffer the flailing with me and still remain on the journey when they could have easily run away; new perspectives; lesson of love and the chance to wake up!

The Biblical narrative is full of stories that speak to the value of memory. The Hebrews understood memory and hope as inextricably linked. Their hope for the future was founded on the very testaments of faith that God had given them in the past. What, then are your memories of 2009 and how will they inform your 2010? What gift will you give God this next year?

I am resolving to give up my proclivity toward competition! I'm notorious for that! I am resolving to have a little more faith than last year and to know that God provides everything we need and more for us when we just let go and enjoy the journey. I am going to strive to keep waking up to the lessons God is seeking to teach me, to keep growing and to hope that somehow my faithfulness will make a mark on my tiny corner of the world.

Christmas always brings a time of new beginnings so this year may we not forget the people that are important to us and the lessons God wants us to employ in our living. May we be faithful and faith-filled souls who use our memories of God as both comfort and fuel for our hopeful living in the days ahead! Amen.