Some of you may have heard a story about me involving a time in which I was running in the arboretum late at night. You may have heard that, while on this particular run, I was maced by a random woman on the trail who proceeded to run away screaming after inflicting horrible pain upon my person. For those of you who have heard this story, I have something to tell you. I made it up. This is not a true story, rather a fabrication which I invented during my Sophomore (how fitting) year here at Western.
Why would I make up such a fantastical story? To be truthful, it was because I was rather insecure during my early time here at WWU and I found that people seemed to take more of an interest in me when I had some sort of zany story that made me easier to remember. At the heart of this desire to be noticed I believe was something which I think a great deal of us can relate to, that being the need to feel important, to have a prominent place in someone's mind. I, along with many other people, had and still continue to have a need to be remembered in some way, particularly one which leaves me as more just another "oh yeah that guy from that thing."
This desire can be seen in several different areas of our lives. We want to succeed, be it in the classroom, on the field, in the marketplace, what have you, so that we can be remembered as a winner. We want to be popular so that we can be remembered by a great many people, something which makes us feel more important. We even want to be able to cram the most marshmallows in our mouth and choke out the words "fluffy bunny" as we fail to draw our last breath through a Great Wall of Stay-Puffed (surely that would get us remembered by at least a couple more people).
For those who have some sense of the eternal life which is available through Christ, the above methods for seeking importance can sometimes seem silly, at least at times when they are pursued to an extreme. However, I think it is important to note that Christians are just as capable of pursuing very similar endeavors as these, though they have what we might think of as holier intentions behind them. We get in cute little competitions with ourselves about how well we pray, about how many people we can heal, encourage, prophesy over, whatever result comes from our particular gifting.
If we were to be honest with ourselves, I think that we would find very similar motivations lying at the heart of these various actions. We, as Christians, strive no less than those who don't yet know God to be remembered. Whether this be by God or by other people, we want to have our faith have meant something.
Sometimes, I don't think this is a bad thing. We should be faithful with the gifts we have been given, even if we don't necessarily feel like we are anything special. The gospel of Christ is one of which inspires us to act, not to simply sit around and revel in how much freedom we have. We should be actively involved in this world, desiring to do so as an expression of thanks for all that has been done for us.
The second we go from acting out of love and thankfulness to trying to be remembered, however, we miss a very important point. That point is, God does remember each of us. Me. You. Even that person watching you read this through that window. Phrases such as this have become cliche in some way in our society, something which (as I've already talked about some) we need to be working against. We are dealing the maker of the universe, the one who has spent all of human history actively involved in the lives of people, the very God who in the form of Jesus came to Earth that He might walk with us and in turn die for us The fact that He actually remembers is should be absolutely shocking in the most beautiful way.
Scripture paints the image that God knows us more intimately than we could ever know ourselves. I think it would do us all a world of good to stop worrying about how we can make sure we are going to be remembered, and instead start focusing on the beautiful thing that is the Truth that we don't have to try. God's spent thousands of years not forgetting people. I don't see why He would start now.
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