What Remains

My mind is a crazy place. Thoughts zig-zag past each other at dizzying speeds. And rarely do they have anything in common. Daydreaming is a favorite hobby. Night dreaming is too but those can get a little scary, and weird. Lately, my thoughts keep returning to things past. Events and days and people gone by.

If you are a regular reader of this blog then you know that I have a penchant for telling stories of my life already lived. Memories keep bubbling to the surface. I’m not exactly sure why – or how – I come up with some of the things I do. But they do and so I am forced to deal with them.

The late author and speaker, Corrie ten Boom, once wrote that memories are events that God is not finished with yet. “Memories are the key not to the past but to the future. I think the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them become perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do.”

Memories, overcoming bad ones in particular, are keys in letting God resurrect and restore us and the dreams and plans for our lives. While we are not to cling to the past, we are told to “remember the days of old” (Deut. 32:7). I think this is because we can learn from our past and the past of others. When we place our past in the hands of our Heavenly Father He opens our eyes to things that we never saw before. Beautiful things that can only be uncovered by His hand and in His timing. (Is. 61:1-4).

Recently, I was taught this lesson most beautifully by a dear friend. I have known Barbara for about 35 years. She is the matriarch of a family that is very close to my family and our families’ lives have intertwined most of my life. I know Barbara to be a beautiful, loving and gracious woman. I love her like a second mother. But I will now sadly admit I did not know as much about her as I could have.

She sent me a very innocuous looking email recently. The body of the email had just five words “Click here: Hope Group Notes”. So I clicked. What I read next transformed me; brought me to tears and gave me amazing insights into a woman I admire and adore (and now I know why) and taught me true-life lessons about God and His boundless love.

Barbara gave testimony about her life and the notes from that testimony were put online by the chapel where she spoke. What she sent me – with no forewarning of any kind that she had even given a sermon – were the notes of that testimony. I am going to give you that same link in a moment but what I want you to know first is that the woman who stood before that congregation and told her story has told this story to very few others. I never knew her story until I read it. It took a world of courage to stand up and give this witness of her past. But as you will see, if you choose to click and see, is that God will redeem us, He will restore our past, wash away the hurt and He will heal the brokenness. We just have to let Him.

Memories can be transformed. They can transform us and they can transform others. What remains is God's abounding love.

Click Here: Hope Group Notes by Barbara Adams

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