Remember

   
     I have always loved this Psalm 42.  It begins with the words, "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God."  A deer panting for water is in a desperate state;  this creature has gone far beyond the need to assuage normal thirst and now is actually panting, desperate for hydration.
      And then the Psalmist declares, "My tears have become my food day and night,while they say to me all the day long, 'Where is your God?'  These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.  Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil against me?  Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God." (Ps.42:1-5)
     I just love that reminder--when we are struggling or feeling downhearted, we need to choose to put our hope in God.
     And we need to remember gratitude--"These things I remember..."  We remember God's never failing faithfulness to us in the past.  Boy, remembering is so important, isn't it?  We can be prone to such forgetful ingratitude.
     Just this morning, I was in the middle of an exercise class.  I had been thinking about all the senior girls who had spent the night at our house last night.  The seniors in Young Life have a tradition every year of going very very early in the morning (as in 4:30 a.m.) to the house of junior Young Life girls and waking them up!  So they spent the night at our house, so they'd be all ready to go early this morning (after a whopping one hour of sleep).  And they all wear crazy costumes.  The picture is from last year when the seniors did it with Janie.  Hilarious!

 They did leave quite a mess this morning--high school girls can eat prodigious amounts of food in the middle of the night.  But then, so can I (only during the day).  But as I thought about it, the Lord suddenly overwhelmed me with remembering His faithfulness.  "Emily, remember the blessings!   Remember what I have done!"  Tears sprang to my eyes, as I considered how close we had come to missing all of this.  How incredibly close we came to losing her... and all the joy of these girls... and senior year... and prom.... and daily life with homework and laundry and busy schedules of school... and seeing these kids come here to our home every monday night for Young Life and hearing their laughter and their songs lifted up to the Lord.
     O Lord Jesus, I prayed silently, thank You thank You thank You.  Thank you for reminding of all we almost missed but didn't--because of Your grace and Your power.  Thank You for the glorious beauty of messes made by teenagers!  Thank You for the busyness and sometimes the overwhelming craziness of life--good, bad, and indifferent.  Help me not to forget... but "these things I remember."
      But then I also love that this Psalm reminds us that when those times of dryness or discouragement or even despair come--when the healing doesn't come, when the house is silent--that's when we need to preach ourselves a sermon.  "Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God."  We tell ourselves, "Self, my hope is not in anything in this world; my hope is in Almighty God.  And with Him we always always always have an infinite source of hope.  Stop focusing on all these things you might feel are not right or disappointing or frustrating, and turn your focus to Him, your hope."
     For we "shall again praise Him"--don't you love that?  Maybe you can't pull up one iota of gratitude or praise or joy in your heart.  But you shall again one day... if you hope in Him.  I'll never forget what my wonderful Daddy said when our family was going through a really tough time--we had lost my mom and my dear aunt Janie, daddy had incurable cancer, and another dear family member had cancer.  "Well, we're going through a rough patch."  Yep, a patch.  Just a patch--not a prolonged siege, not an infinite unbroken line, but a patch... and you eventually come through patches to the other side.
     So today, I don't know if anyone else needed this reminder, but just in case you do--remember gratitude for God's past faithfulness.  Choose to turn away from your circumstances and remember the blessings.  If you can't think of any, just open your eyes and look outside!  And then, preach yourself a little sermon--I will hope in my glorious, all powerful, sovereign Lord.  He is my Hope and my Shield and my Rock.  And we shall again praise Him.
     For He is forever worthy.  To God be the glory.