Do you struggle with remembering things?
I do. Sometimes it borders on scary. My husband and I have this game we play; we affectionately refer to it as, “I told you that!”
Apparently, we both have rich conversations with each other -- in our heads. Our mouths don’t get engaged nearly as often. I’ll discover something critical, like, he’s going out of town tomorrow, purely by some backhanded comment.
His eyebrows jump, and he grows a sheepish grin. “I told you. Didn’t I?” He really thinks he did, too.
But I do the same to him, and it’s slightly possible I also hear him without actually listening to what he just said. My oldest daughter often says, “You just asked me that question.” Oops! Note to self…listen to the answer.
During Sunday’s sermon, my pastor used the illustration of a group of life-roughened men who lived in a shelter near my pastor’s college. Every Friday night, a group of ministry students put on a small church service. The residents of the shelter were fresh off the streets. And they dragged their dysfunction to church with them. Every Friday the residents got to choose a song. Every Friday they chose “Victory in Jesus.”
This group of addicted, worn-down, beat-up men was anything but victorious. Why that song? Why not “Jesus Loves Me?” I’d find more comfort in that if I wore their shoes. “Amazing Grace” now that’s a song to celebrate.
Maybe, prophetically, they wanted to sing about what could be, someday.
I think the choice in song ties into memory. As great as the other songs are, I want to believe that no matter how pathetic I am right now, I actually have Jesus, the King of kings, working in my life, fixing, changing, breaking and winning.
The prophet Samuel set up an Ebenezer stone for the Israelites to remind them that God had been with them right up until that point, and that He hadn’t gone anywhere. I think “Victory in Jesus” became an Ebenezer stone for those shelter residents. Jesus promised, Jesus did it, and Jesus is going to finish it.
So, if you forget everything else today, remember that if you have Jesus, then you have victory in Him.
Oh, and that you need to be fully dressed if you go out in public.