In Memory of...

When a person begins to lose their mind, many things are malfunctioning in the brain. All of a sudden, simple tasks now have to be relearned or maybe just struggled through to go on living life. I have been watching my grandmother slowly fade of Alzheimer's and it has been tough. She hears names and lights up even though she can't necessarily put a face to it, she sees pictures and smiles, even though she may not be sure why. In the same light, we can become sidetracked in our faith journeys. We forget things that should be important to us because they aren't in our normal patterns of living. We make commitments and then forget about them. The difference is, a disease like Alzheimer's cannot be cured, on our journeys, most of us have just become lazy...and that is sad.

As I finished speaking last night at our youth gathering, we were gearing up to move into the response time. I student said, "yay, more arts and crafts!" This may sound funny to some, but since I have been in Syracuse we have been doing a lot of hands-on responses to messages and events. This is a practice that was cultivated in me by a fellow group of ministers in KC, in which we would respond in worship by singing, painting, writing, or going through a ritual. When we have put work into our reflections, rather than just keep our brilliant ideas in our heads, we have something to look at, something to remember. In our youth room is a cross with our students names on it reminding us of the grace that has been shown to us by Christ showing us the ultimate example of love. We have canvases that have pictures into our thinking about different passages of scripture, etc. I want the students to remember what they have heard, to remember what they've done, remember who they have been chosen and created to be.

In memory of our faith, we need markers to remind us of the good times and of the bad. In a fast paced and shiny world, we need anchors to keep us participating in THE story. In the Holy Scriptures, these markers were often called "altars." The question is, are you staying anchored to the story, or are you forgetting the grace that has been given to you?