While we on the Gulf Coast have experienced our own version of 9-11 just two years ago in the form of a devastating hurricane, we all still feel the sadness of September 11, 2001. We will join the rest of the nation in remembering next Tuesday, the 6th anniversary of that awful event. We will think of the thousands who died in their offices, those who died rescuing them, those who died on the plane and in the Pentagon, and all who were affected by these deaths. We will remember that day, recall the pain, and recommit ourselves.

The wound from 9-11 has mostly healed, but it has left a lasting scar on the soul of America. We are determined not to forget.

However, let us bear in mind that remembering is often a problem for us.We recall what we need to forget and turn loose of the very things we should remember.

In some ways and some areas, but not all, remembering is a necessary part of the human experience. We write notes to help us remember a grocery list or chores. We carry calendars and day-timers to get us to important assignments on time. We work to remember appointments, anniversaries, and the names of people. Teachers give tests so that we might remember the lessons they have presented to the class.

“Do this in remembrance of me” has been carved across the front of Lord’s Supper tables in almost every Protestant church in the land. Our Lord ordered this memorial supper to keep before us the matter of His death. “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death until He come.” He gave us baptism–the original kind, full immersion–to keep His burial and resurrection before the church and the world. With these two ordinances, the Lord’s Supper and baptism, we portray the great events of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection to one another and the world.

In many situations, not remembering but forgetting is the right action. Some matters cry out to be erased from the mind and never brought up again. The slights of a friend, harsh words from a lover, the failure of someone we counted on, all should be forgotten. Love keeps no account of evil, we read in I Corinthians 13. God forgives our sin and then assures us, “I will remember it no more.” That’s Hebrews 10:17, a quote from the Old Testament.

Forgetting is a handy device of the human spirit that allows us to close the doors on sad events and unpleasant chapters and go forward. Unkind words, harsh treatment, neglect, cruelty, misfortune, accidents, great pain–we need to forget. “Forgetting those things which are behind,” Paul wrote, “I press forward.” (Philippians 3:13)

“How can you treat her so well after what she did to you?” someone asked a friend. “Oh,” she answered, “I distinctly remember forgetting that.”

We turn loose of hurtful events, words, actions, and times in order to free ourselves for greater deeds and higher flight. The hurts and pains of yesterday are like land-lines, anchoring us to the ground, guaranteeing that we will rise no higher. Through the actions of forgiving and forgetting, we loosen those lines, close the door on the past and are able to deal with whatever lies over the next horizon.

In God’s dealings with Israel in Old Testament days, we see Him repeatedly providing methods for them to recall the past, to nail down some event so that generation would forever keep it nearby. These devices would also provide ways to teach the lessons to future generations.

God gave His people everything from holy days on the calendar to the written Word, everything from sacred rites in the worship service to piles of rocks in the middle of the Jordan, from songs to stories to sacrifices, from preachers to prophecies. He gave miracles and He gave judgements, all for the same purpose: to make certain no one ever forgot.

God knew His target audience; He was under no illusion about this fickle breed of humanity He was dealing with. They would require every kind of mnemonic aid to help them remember.

As Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan, he instructed the Levites to take with them 12 large stones. They carried them one day’s journey where they were then arranged in some form as a memorial to that day. At the same time, Joshua instructed others to arrange 12 stones in the depth of the Jordan which was dry for a few hours while the people crossed. In some distant day, Joshua knew a time of drought would come and the Jordan would be so low those stones would be exposed. When that happened, they would have a vivid remembrance that “the Lord who brought us into this land with a mighty hand can surely take care of us now.”

“Put that stone over there,” the man of God told the Israelites after a victorious campaign against the Philistines. “We will name it ‘Ebenezer.'” The word literally means “stone of help.” “Hitherto the Lord hath been our help,” Samuel told the people. (I Samuel 7:12) Many of our people recall singing a hymn based on that stone. “Here I raise mine ebenezer, hither by thy help I’m come. And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home.”

“In the time to come,” God said, “your child will ask, ‘What does this holy day mean?’ When he does, you must tell him how God led you out of Egypt and provided for you through forty years of wilderness wanderings, then brought you into the land of milk and honey.” (See Exodus 13:8 and Deuteronomy 6:20.)

How special that our benevolent Lord went the extra mile to help us remember.

In a small English town, an American minister had two hours on his hands while his car was being repaired. He enjoyed walking the streets and soon found a quaint cemetery behind an ancient church. He spent an enjoyable half-hour reading names and dates and epitaphs, and then he made a discovery. In a far corner of the graveyard was a little section of graves of soldiers who had all died about the same time. A plaque read, “We will never forget.”

The pastor sought out the sexton of the church to inquire about the graves. “No one remembers,” the old gentleman said. “That generation has all passed on.”

Somewhere I read of an excavation going on in the courthouse square in a Northern state. As workers dug a large hole to prepare a foundation for the annex, to their surprise, they unearthed a statue. There was no identification, nothing with a clue to its meaning. A faded metal plate at the base read, “We will never forget.” But they had.

It’s human nature to forget, even the finest of people, the best of gifts and the most pleasant of times. Life goes on, we absorb the gains and the losses, we make the necessary adjustments, and deal with the challenges arriving with each new day. The ability to do that is a tribute to the indomitability of the human spirit.

But not always. Some times, some things, and some people you don’t want to forget. You need to hold on to them dearly.

“Beware lest you forget the Lord,” God told Israel through Moses. Before long they would be moving into Canaan, taking up residence in houses they had not built, ruling over cities they had not put there, eating from crops and vineyards they had not planted or cultivated. When that happens, He said, the temptation will be to take your eyes off the Lord and forget Him. Do not let it happen. (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)

We in this country must never forget how vulnerable we are to terrorism. With the openness of our land and the unsurpassed freedoms enjoyed by our people, we are attractive targets for evil people. A terrorist willing to sacrifice his own life to bring about the deaths of others can always do great damage.

We are vulnerable. We must be vigilant. “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance,” said a famous stateman centuries ago. We should not complain when the airport security lines are long and slow; it’s the price of safety.

We are vulnerable, we must be vigilant, we look to God alone for the victory. Our hope is in Him. “Some trust in chariots and some in horses,” said the psalmist. “But we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.” (Ps. 20:7)

In the opening chapter of the little epistle of Second Peter, we are given a list of godly virtues, everything from moral excellene and knowledge to kindness and love. If these things are in you, writes the Apostle, then you will be useful and fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, “he who lacks these qualities is blind and short-sighted, and has forgotten that he was redeemed from his former sins.” (II Peter 1:5-9)

We must never forget what God has done for us, that “by His mercy” and that alone are we saved. He is our victory.

So, we will be people of faith and prayer. We will support our leaders when they ask us to make sacrifices for the common good. We will speak out to remind our friends when they want it both ways, to have all their liberties and freedoms, yet be fully protected from the forces of darkness at no personal cost to them. We will labor to stay informed and go to the polls. And once the electorate has made its choices, whether we agree or not, we will get behind our leaders and support them to the extent of our ability.

Some will not want to do this. They reserve the right to belly-ache and carp and gripe about rights and privileges and freedoms they are missing in the fight against terrorism. And because this is the land of the free, we endure their rants and grant them the privilege.

We, however, will stand strong and be firm. We will seek to be part of the answer for this nation and not another of its problems. The lessons of yesterday will not be lost on us.

We will remember.