In an attempt to escape the reality of life I watched a movie the other night called "Autumn Hearts: A New Beginning". In the movie the main character, played by Susan Sarandon, is a 50 year old medicated woman still dealing with the pain of being a camp survivor from 1940s France. Without spoiling the movie for you, there was a time at the camp where her "protector" played by Christopher Plummer, hands her a journal and asks her to write down all of the names and dates of the people that came through the camp, "because someone has to remember." The young girl took her assignment seriously and from that moment on she remembered all the social injustices that were brought to her attention. This continued through out her adult life. She had files filled with all the social injustices she had researched over the years. It became such an obsession that she wasn't able to function in her own life. She was so afraid that if she didn't remember ... no body would ... and "all those lost souls would be forgotten."
Christopher's character visits Susan's, in a picturesque setting at a lake side ranch in Canada. He realized what she had been doing all of the years since they had been separated at the camp and the broken state it had left her in. There comes a poignant time in the movie where he apologizes and says: Instead of teaching you to remember, I should of taught you to live. That simple phrase really gripped my heart!
Yes ... we can remember the past. Yes ... we can live to die. Yes ... we can look to the future. But what is life ... if we don't truly LIVE? I don't want to be constantly looking over my shoulder at what has already been. I am thankful for God's grace and where He's brought me from ... but it doesn't have to consume my existence. He has taken my sins and has forgotten them. They are as far from his mind as the East is from the West. I am thankful for and embrace the cross daily ... but it doesn't have to be a heavy burden that I carry on my own. I don't have to search out things to slay in my life. He will show me what he wants to work on in his time. His burden is light. I don't want to fear the future and all that it has for me, my family, my friends. I am thankful that he knows the plans he has for me and I don't have to be paralyzed, afraid that I am going to move out side of his will. I am HIS child.
It is so easy on this journey to get sidetracked on things that don't lead us towards LIFE ... the life that Christ has for us. We are so busy remembering, dying, searching for the future that we forget that He calls us to LIVE, to LOVE and yes ... sometimes even LAUGH!!!
I want to teach my children not just to remember but to LIVE! I want to teach my children not just to die but to LIVE! I want to teach my children not just to look to the future but to LIVE! Today ... I will choose to LIVE!
Me, too :)