Recently I’ve started to read a book by my favorite author Frederick Buechner. The book is called “A Room Called Remember,” and is introduced and themed around a dream that Buechner had. In a nutshell (that is”summed up,” his actual dream did not take place in a nutshell) his dream plotted that he was staying in an incredibly euphoric hotel room but when he left it he found that he couldn’t find it again. He went to a front desk and explain his predicament and the room, and the person at the front desk knew exactly the room he was speaking of, and he told Frederick that all he had to do was to ask for it by its name. When Frederick asked the attendant what the name of the room was, he was shocked to find out that its name was “Remember.” The book is a weaving together of his personal experiences, thoughts, and scripture. It really is a good book by a deep author so I highly recommend it.
The title of this book hit me because I feel that God is calling me into a season of remembering: remembering His faithfulness, how far I’ve come, and where beyond all my bumbling He is leading me. This season, I feel, is not just a time of remembering His faithfulness, but a journey of remembering my scrapes, bruising, and late nights of crying out along the way. Certain moments exist in my life that have had defining moments…momemts in which I knew I would never be same. Little moments of serendipity, or even tragedy, or both. Moments that carry with them the weight of the world at the same time as the universe quaking reality that I am chosen and loved by the Creator of the universe. It’s the all encompassing moment where it all hits you at once with a quaking in your gut, the well of tears in your eyes, and a longing in your heart where you feel that it’s broken and in love at the same time. These moments, I believe, that if we remember them, we’ll not only remember the faithfulness of God, but also who we are.
So I’m stretching forth my hand to God as I trust that what follows is not a fool’s undoing, but instead a scandalous affair. Feel free to walk into my Room of Remember with me with the disclaimer that I don’t know the full weight of it, but I hope that it will take us into the next present moment of God’s grace.