Sirus Digital Newsletter – Edition 98

We are going to hear a lot about remembering and memorializing this weekend. Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, is set aside for that very purpose. Amid the just-out-of-school vacations and weekend barbeques at the pool/lake, there is the call to remembrance interwoven with our events.

Lost in the shuffle of those “tired of it, just trying to get away” and others who “can’t let it go wishing everyone would quit trying to forget”, there is one thing we should keep in mind: Remembering should lead to a change!

Without our memories and experience, learning is only what we’re told. For evidence, when do children really learn not to mess with things around a stove? It is, unfortunately, less their parent’s admonishment and usually remembering the feeling of being burned. (Note: Our hope is that they are not injured and the pain is temporary.)

What does Memorial Day hope to serve? It is a reminder of the high costs of freedoms that we get to enjoy. To those men and women who purchased them through suffering or death, it is our responsibility not to take their sacrifice for granted.

Things worth having don’t come cheaply! We may not pay for them, but someone does.

The same thing arises in other areas. Jesus told His disciples to remember Him when they repeated the Lord’s Supper. Within Christian churches, we do this to this day.

Our memories are amazing things. They allow us to relive our best of times while hopefully enabling us to learn from the lesser of them.

As you celebrate today, take a moment to think of what sacrifices were made to get you to where you are today.

• How might it have felt to be on a boat carrying a weapon onto Normandy?
• What would you have thought as a first-responder entering a flaming building on a New York morning?
• Of whom would you have thought as you stood in formation readying to exchange volleys with British regulars?
• What would you hope we’d remember if that was the last thing you did?

The benefit of remembering is that it enables us to learn and act in response. Maybe we would respond differently; maybe we would do the exact same thing. Taking the time to plan for it is a gift that they have left for us.

Be sure to use it!

-D

P.S. I shared last week.

We are quickly approaching Edition 100 of this newsletter. I appreciate those of you who have been here from the beginning as well as those who are newly arriving. It truly means more than you know!

• If you know someone who would benefit or might be interested in joining our journey together, be sure to forward this to them!
• If there is something that you’d like to see (or something you’d like to see differently), shoot me an email (david_at_sirusdigital.com). I enjoy hearing feedback as I hope you get something out of it as much as I do.