Remembering and Forgetting

We are heading into another holiday weekend.  The weekend of the fourth is a time of celebration.  Festivals, parades and fireworks are the order of the day.  It also seems to be the start of the summer tourist season.  Some people say summer starts with Memorial Day or on the Solstice, but I think that its the Fourth.  It just seems that the tourist season kicks into higher gear afterwards.  This is a mixed blessing in a small northern town.  On the one hand, I know that the local economy couldn't survive without the tourist trade.  The visitors are renting canoes and tubes; they are eating in restaurants; they shop in our stores and stay in our hotels.  So we absolutely need them to come.  BUT, it sure does get crowded.

Of course there is more to the fourth than the kick off to the tourist season.  Over 200 years ago a group of people said enough was enough already.  They couldn't live under the rule of King George, so they made a Declaration and set this nation on its course.  It was neither the start, nor the end of the struggle.  The fighting had been going on for some time and continued well after.  The question of what freedom is and how it should be applied is a question we continue to struggle with to this day,  We struggle between the rule of the majority and the rights of the minority.  I believe it is the struggle itself that defines our nation.  And like summer tourism is kicked off with the Fourth, I think that this defining struggle began on the fourth, so long ago.

So on this day we remember this first of many defining moments as a country.  And while we remember, there are some things that are better left forgotten.  War is a nasty business and tends to bring out the worst in both sides.  While we remember the bravery and the sacrifice, we need to put the rest behind us and move on.  There are many countries that we have fought with, that today are allies.  Great Briton is first among these.  Germany and Japan were bitter enemies once.  Even Vietnam is a trading partner and hosts Presidential visits.  The news last night talked about our new openness with Cuba. When we put the past behind us, new possibilities can define the future.

Remembering and forgetting can be a good analogy to our walk with God.  We need to remember the blessings of God.  We need to remember the peace the passes all understanding and the hope that we find.  At the same time, we need to forget ourselves.  We need to forget the parts of our history that separate us from God's intentions for our lives.  As long as we hold on to the grudges of the past, we can never move into the future.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

The Fourth of July is about freedom.  God gives us that freedom and true independence.  Our part is to forget the parts of our past that hold us back.