Remember to remember

         The other day, one of our daughters shared a text with our family about a wonderful biography she's reading by David Mccullough about the life of Harry Truman. It's an incredibly powerful book about a remarkable man and leader who led our country during a particularly perilous and challenging time. But even well before becoming president, Truman served as a artillery lieutenant on the front lines during World War I. (He was, in fact, the only U.S. president to see active combat during the first World War.)  Even then, Truman demonstrated remarkable courage and leadership during a time of horrific fighting.
         Our daughter shared one passage from the book, however, that focused not particularly on Truman's leadership, but on the impact of the deadly Spanish flu that hit the entire world during the first World War. Mccullough writes,
         "When news of the influenza epidemic at home reached camp, Harry became so alarmed he hardly knew how to to contain himself. Bess [his wife] and her brother Frank had both been down with the 'Spanish flu,' he learned... 'Every day nearly someone of my outfit will hear that his mother, sister, or sweetheart is dead,' he wrote. 'It is heartbreaking almost to think that we are so safe and so well over here and that the ones we'd like to protect more than all the world have been more exposed to death than we.' By the time the epidemic ran its course, vanishing mysteriously early in 1919, the number of deaths in the United States reached 500,000, including 25,000 soldiers, or nearly half the number of American battlefield deaths in the war."
         Did you catch that?  500,000 lives were lost to the Spanish flu in the U.S. alone and that included 25,000 soldiers, nearly as many as were lost during combat. And worldwide, there were an estimated 50 million deaths due to the Spanish flu.
         During another horrific pandemic in the 14th century, 25 million Europeans died--which constituted at least 48 percent of the entire European population.
          Then there were the plagues in the 2nd, 3rd and 6th century, suffering, again, unimaginable losses of life.  But during all these horrific plagues, it was the Christians who literally ran into the places of sickness and death in order to love and care for those sick and dying while the Romans and others fled.
         The point?  People, we have been through worse...through much, much, much worse.  It's one of the reasons it's so important to read history: as we see the challenges, tragedies and difficulties past generations have endured and persevered through, it gives us perspective, courage, and hope for our own day.  If they could endure and persevere, why not us? 
         Is their God not our God?
         Is their Source of strength and love not ours as well?
         Is God's power or grace just as certain and changeless today as it was then?
         Is our Savior still able to sustain and save?
         Yes, a thousand times yes to every question!  As Hebrews 13:8 declares, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."  He is changeless...and omnipotent...and omniscient...and overflowing with grace, love, forgiveness, joy.
         So in these very challenging days, we need to remember. Remember His supernatural Word. Remember who our God is. Remember what He has done in His Word, in history, and in our lives. And Remember He is still and forever "able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us." (Eph.3:20)
         We must remember to remember.  And remember that He is still here, still working, still able. He is God and there is none other.
         "O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old:  You with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free; for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them. You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob! Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down those who rise up against us. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. " (Ps.44:1-8)
         Here's how Tim Keller put it: "The psalmist remembers the times of the ‘ancestors’ (verse 1) as a period of national flourishing. We have a direct link to the mighty deeds of the past, because they were exploits not of our ancestors but of God Himself, and that God is still with us. Christians should never look at church history as if it contained some great race of heroes that has vanished irretrievably. Their God is our God...And He is still here."
         Yes, we're going through an unbelievably challenging time, but our God is still here, still powerful, and He still works best in graveyards. 
         I don't know how or when this will all end. I don't know what the terrible toll will ultimately be in lives lost and how life as we know it will be transformed in really hard ways, but this I do know: we have a God who left the infinite glories of heaven to come Himself to this sin-sick, disease-ridden world.  And who, out of His infinite love for us, allowed Himself to be misunderstood, humiliated, betrayed, denied, tortured, and killed all so that we, the very ones who did the torturing and denying and hating and killing, might be saved. And I do know that because He conquered sin and death and rose victorious from the dead, all who believe in Him will receive eternal, abundant life. And we, too, will one day rise to eternal glory.
          And so in the meantime, we keep our hands to the plough, loving and caring for others to the best of our ability and loving God and living for His glory. But all the while we keep our gaze locked on Jesus and on His sure and certain promise of the disease-less, sin-less, death-less, pain-less, eternal, joyous, perfect glory ahead.
         So in case you needed some reminding today, hope this encourages you to  remember to remember.  And when I need reminding, I hope you'll do the same with me. Because we're all this battle together....but our mighty Lion of Judah is in it with us as well. And He has won, is winning, and will win the battle.
          "We do not know what we should do, but our eyes are on You.” (2 Chron.20:12) 
           Aslan, I think I can hear You roar.   Come Lord Jesus. 
          To God be the glory.