Remembering With GodSample

Remembering That We Are With Jesus

Jesus’ life on earth is an artistic display of God in skin, and the canvas is our memory. Into this life and these teachings, we are invited, like the first disciples, to “abide” (John 15:1-5). 

As Lesslie Newbigin says, abiding is “the continually renewed decision that what has been done once for all by the action of Jesus shall be the basis, the starting point, the context for all my thinking and deciding and doing.”

We are blessed with the invitation to abide the taking movement of Jesus so we might be with him. This welcome lodges in our long-term memory because in a world of separation the adrenaline attached to the memory is strong enough to leap across our synapses with the greatest of ease. 

We need this memory most when we’re standing in line at the grocery store, being berated by our supervisor, or staring at the lines in our face enhanced by the dark season we currently inhabit. 

Remembering our takenness by Jesus reminds us that we have a place, and that place crafts our stories and our scripts. Any healthy spiritual practice of remembering will bring us back to the idea that we are taken for something greater than what we have known. 

What promise or teaching is Jesus specifically asking you to “abide” in? With the promise in mind that God has chosen you and your memories for something beautiful, ask Jesus for specific direction regarding where you are being asked to abide today. 

From As I Recall by Casey Tygrett