Move forward, yet never forget

Last night I couldn't seem to watch enough about 9/11. Ten years. Incomprehensible. Something each program kept emphasizing was that we move forward, yet never forget. And after about the 7th or 8th time of hearing this, I listened a bit closer and wondered. Is this how we live life no matter what? We move forward, yet never fully forget? Are there pieces to forget and some to never forget?

Broken relationships, death in the family, songs on the radio, sermons that stick with us, books that hold us captive, the feeling of winning, of losing. This list is by no means a comparison meant to lessen the events on 9/11. It's the best I can do to understand if but a piece of what it feels like to have to move forward from such a tragedy, and to not forget. 

In the back of my mind, words from Philippians 3:13 churned. 

"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead"...

What if 'forgetting' is afterall actually not 'forgetting'? I don't believe Paul was saying he banished the past from his mind, nor could he. Rather, there may come a time where to forget the past or parts of it, requires a choice. That we have to chose to not feed certain elements of the past in remembering them. Instead, straining (sometimes in every sense of the word) forward, not to forget, but to live and as Paul continues, to "press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Those interviewed were each at a different place, handled the grief and processed it in different ways. Regardless, each was straining forward, to not forget.

To move forward and to not forget also means to learn from the past. However, learning is not solely based on having done wrong. It is in learning how to grieve, how to let go, how to trust again, to love more deeply and see life in a new way.

Tomorrow the High School Youth group meets for the first time this year. Many of the youth were in elementary school when 9/11 happened. We live in a post 9/11 world, in which they have grown. My prayer for them is not that they remember, but that they never forget.Often times, life is found in loss. Their freedom came at a cost. Even our freedom in Christ Jesus came at the cost of the cross.

Also to never forget that we are protected on a daily basis by people who have committed their lives to protecting others. To do what we can to remember those who lost their lives in 9/11, the HSYG will write letters of gratitude and encouragement for firemen and women at Fire Station 6 of Colorado Springs. Thank you and God bless you for your service and sacrifice.