Re-membering and Why it Matters

"Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary. There are burning bushes all around you. Every tree is full of angels. Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb. Life wants to lead you from crumbs to angels, but this can happen only if you are willing to unwrap the ordinary by staying with it long enough to harvest its treasure." Macrina Wiederkehr

“Thinking back through time can be like reaching into the dark, murky water with no idea of what your hands will come across a lovely shell or something with spines and venom. Remembering, like all matters spiritual, requires imagination, trust, and courage.” Margaret Bendroth

“Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars.” Barbara Brown Taylor

"Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace." Frederick Buechner

I don’t know if we’ve ever been more ready for “new”—new year, new hope, new dreams. Pretty much anything but 2020. Let’s turn the page on the past and start fresh!

We’ve never wanted a do-over more. But before we leave 2020 behind for clean-slate calendars, it’s important to re-member, to re-collect our last year. Looking at our lives for signs of the holy requires re-visiting.

I remember well my father’s funeral when the pastor suggested the idea of re-membering, of putting dad's life together. He said in telling our stories and collecting patches of experiences, we were creating a beautiful quilt that would cover us in dad’s love. And it really, really did.

To be re-minded of his seer-sucker suit and his habit of eating ice cream for lunch, his memory with storage like a hard drive, and his love for the beach did something profound for me. Re-membering my dad that day created a generous wholeness to his life. Though he was physically gone, memories of his moments re-minded me of something permanent. And in a way, I could never lose him.

It’s why we stop and examine our last year—there’s a wholeness to re-rembering it all; there’s a permanence that stories stitch together. It’s important to “crack our shins” on the altars of our lives, as Barbara Brown Taylor says. Re-collecting matters.

With that in mind, Beth and I offer you a simple re-membering, re-collecting, re-visiting, re-minding practice for 2020. Click here for the gentle instructions.

Take some time. Sit with Jesus. Share with a friend. Put it all together, like a patchwork quilt of God's love. Then, offer it back to the Lord with thanksgiving.

“ . . . [L]ife itself is grace.”

Happy New Year!
JUDY

P.S If you're looking to try a new practice in 2021, consider this beautiful introduction to centering prayer with our friends artist Claudia Campbell and CloudWalk's Larry Green.