Happy Memorial Day!
The holiday inspires today’s word-of-the-week…
REMEMBER
Today’s a day for remembering.
I recently heard a surprising factoid. Twenty-seven of thirty major league baseball teams play in stadiums built (or substantially remodeled) since 1988. Boston’s Fenway Park and Chicago’s Wrigley Field (about 100 years old) are ancient.
My brother Jim recently moved to Japan. I’m constantly struck by the sheer age of things he describes. Buildings, shrines, landmarks, and customs develop and endure for centuries. There’s something striking about anything that’s been around for 800 or 900 years.
We tend to have short memories. We’re immersed in contemporary fashions, tweets, and 24-hour news cycles focused on the crisis of the day (immediately replaced by the next crisis of the day).
Today’s a day for remembering. Perhaps it can also be an inspiration to resist the lure of “now” and the shininess of “new.” There’s something to recommend mature, well-developed, and experienced. We remember those who went to battle for us and did what they could to protect our rights and defend those who could not do it themselves. This is why remembering them is so important, not just for now, but for the future too. So when people fly marine corp flags, army flags, or navy flags, they are doing it to remind themselves and others that there are people out there still fighting for the freedom of their country. Old and new.
“Old” offers background and context. Wisdom resides in calm reflection that’s often lost to the pressures of the immediate.
God invites us to a present in which He’s doing new things (Isaiah 43:18) and a future of hope. He also reminds us to remain grounded in eternal principles.
Let’s remember.
Have a great week.
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