Remember...

We are rarely able to put ourselves into another person’s shoes. To feel what he feels and think as he thinks is not natural. It’s a wonder that any of us wonder why no one really understands when we are in trouble; we don’t try very hard to really understand when others go through trouble.

“Remember the prisoners as if chained with them — those who are mistreated — since you yourselves are in the body also.” (Hebrews 13:3 NKJV) Here, we are called to remember and to put ourselves into someone else’s skin. That requires us to think and to feel. Some prisoners suffer confinement and abuse for Christ and the gospel, not for evildoing. Instead of whining and complaining, they go on furthering His cause in the place where Providence has put them and they still find their joy in Christ. They deserve to be remembered—and remembered with great feeling.

Many who love and serve the Lord Jesus with all their hearts find themselves today in prisons of other kinds. Steel bars and guards and razor-wired walls are nowhere in sight, but they yet live in a confinement of circumstance and in too much maddening isolation. They are not the sort of martyrs whose memory we sing, but they love Christ with all their hearts and bear witness to His grace by their persevering faith. But it isn’t easy to walk in their shoes. How could we forget them? How could we fail to comfort the Lord’s loved ones who suffer in any prison? Ah, but we do. We do.

We have intentionally short memories when it comes to pain or trouble or solitude. We forget as soon as possible. The royal cupbearer forgot Joseph as he quickly put the dungeon experience behind him. We too forget Joseph, like we never knew him. And why not leave an unpleasant past unremembered? It was a bad time we want to forget forever. Weary times, possibly not so long ago, when we suffered things most unbearable and felt that no one cared or understood—who wants to remember such things or such times? But forgetting our unpleasant past means forgetting Joseph’s painful present.

And what about Joseph? We didn’t put him there. Ultimately it was God who purposed that he should be in that hard place, right? Are we to interfere with evident providence, to intervene?

We make a great mistake to think that since Joseph lived in a dungeon that God had judged him guilty. We err further to think that God intended for him to stay there forever. Was he not impressive enough to recall, when he spoke comfort and strength to our soul, bearing good news in hopeful words? Did not Joseph’s quality shine through, despite the peculiar setting? How do we forget a virtual diamond of a man?

We have known some people and have conveniently forgotten them, and possibly some “of whom the world was not worthy.” They once enriched us, but that was then. It is as if they died, or never lived. But they are very much alive, though forgotten. To remember them would require us to revisit an old dungeon from our past where we were afraid and cold and alone. We would just as soon never think of it again. It is so much easier to leave it all in the forgotten past. Joseph will somehow be noticed. Someday someone will do something. Meanwhile, we have plenty to keep us busy without taking on projects. He’ll be fine. He was well a couple of years ago.

Is there someone you must remember, whose life, whose existence, should be your great concern today? Do you think you can now feel what they feel? Would you try to get into their skin? Are they lonely, sick, grieved, or even hungry? Can you begin to imagine their relief to see your face and to feel kindness in the touch of your hand? To know you care enough to interrupt their trouble! Someone…yes, you! You remembered!

Dear one, we have forgotten long enough. It is time to remember and that is something we must do on purpose! Remember; then do something. Do it today! –TSA