You See, We Must Remember

 

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me…”

—Psalm 23:4

The man on the television screen, with a woman by his side, spoke as tears filled their eyes. “We’ve been trying really hard to forget that terrible day. But, we just can’t seem to erase those images from our minds.”

That’s a common reaction from individuals who have had to face a significant tragedy in their lives. They truly want to blot the images of that event out of their minds. No matter how hard they try to do so, they can’t seem to erase the impressions of the horrific event. I’m not certain they are supposed to be able to turn off the lamp of the mental projector that keeps displaying the remembered images.

A number of significant psychological studies have been done over the years in developing treatment strategies for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These studies have shown that instead of erasing, replacing, or minimizing the images that remain from a traumatic event, it is far better to help an individual integrate those images into the person’s normal thought patterns. Sometimes healing cannot come until the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of the disruptive memories are normalized within the catalog of all the memories that a person’s brain has stored away.

Throughout Scripture, there were many times when God urged His people to remember. In fact, some form of the word “remember” appears 231 times in the Old and New Testaments. God wants His people to remember because remembering fixes the scope and context of an event in one’s mind—neither minimizing nor amplifying the occurrence.

Each time we celebrate the Sacrament of the Eurcharist, or Holy Communion, we remember a most horrible event: the death of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, on the cruel Roman cross of torture. We remember that Jesus died in our place. He carried our sins to the cross. In His death, He obtained forgiveness for all our sins and secured our place in heaven for eternity.

You see, we must remember. Remembering is not a bad thing. In fact, remembering is a very good thing when we integrate what we remember into the totality of our lives.

On this thirteenth anniversary of the radical Islamic terrorist attack on the people of the United States of America, we must remember. We must remember where we were when we heard the news. We must remember those we may have known who either perished on that terrible day, or who subsequently died as a direct or indirect result of the events of that day.

September 11, 2001, should remain etched on the minds and hearts of every citizen of this nation. But, not remembered in order to produce a hateful grudge and a desire to destroy those who tried to destroy us. Rather, we must remember in order to honor those who died, to recognize how terrible the forces of evil are in this world, and to be able to integrate into the broad spectrum of our memories the significance of that awful day.

Of all Scripture that might come to mind as I reflect of September 11, 2001, Psalm 23 always seems most appropriate:

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
    He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
    he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

I pray, on this day of remembrance, that the God of All Comfort will continue to wipe the tears from the eyes of those who lost loved ones on that terrible day. I pray that He who gave up His own dear Son that we might have eternal life will grant to all who mourn the peace of knowing that He remains fully in control and will protect us in His sheltering arms of love.

I also share with you, as I have shared in the past, the following audio clip that more than any I’ve heard gives me a sense of what God might have to say about that terrible day:

Let us take time to remember that day and what transpired thirteen years ago. And, let us thank God that no matter what happens we can rest assured that He—who chose us to belong to Him before the foundation of the earth—will never leave us. His love will prevail all the days we live and someday we will kneel at His feet in heaven.

 

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