Remembrance

The problem is this: we are all too often forgotten.

We strive all our lives to do important things and have people remember us. We worry about what clothes to wear; what to say, how to act, first impressions, etc., in our striving to be remembered - and not just remembered, but remembered in the way we prefer. Because of this, we are delighted when we encounter someone for the first time in months and they actually remember us. On the other hand, we are often dissapointed when people do not remember who we are when we feel like they should.

Why is this? Why do we attach such feelings and emotions to being remembered (or not)? Do we, as people, base our worth in some way on how well we are remembered by others? And if we do, is that so inaccurate or wrong? Throughout history, people have striven to accomplish great feats, such as conquering all of the known world, just to be remembered and in sense live forever in history. People like Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and King Alfred the Great did more than any like them had done before. Both of them have the word "great" in their title now ("genghis khan" means "great ruler"). All of them died and left everything they had accomplished behind thousands of years ago. Nothing; no treasure, no territory, nothing, went with them into the "great beyond." So why did they try so hard to be remembered, and why do I?

Perhaps it is simply pleasing to that person to know that one has left their mark. Maybe that's all it is. Or maybe, just maybe, it's something deeper within us. Just maybe it is something in our "programming," something in who we are as humans, that gives us these attachments of feelings and emotions to something as simple as being remembered and thought about. That's what it really comes down to: being thought about. It means that we are important enough to earn a spot in people's thoughts and minds in this busy world we live in. It makes us feel important to be remembered and perhaps that is a problem in that it is basically a false feeling of importance and worth. But maybe it isn't bad at all to feel good when people we care about think about us and remember us, because doesn't that mean they, in turn, feel the same way about us? It means they also care about us, at least in some way, does it not?

So maybe it isn't such a problem that we care about being remembered, and are afraid of being forgotten. I think it is only natural to want to be remembered, however, there are healthy and unhealthy ways to go about it. Maybe the next time we start eating without thanking God for the food, we should think about the fact that God never forgets us, while we forget about Him all the time.

"This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." - Luke 22:19