Why You Can't Afford to Forget | Joshua 4 | Crossroads Daily

And we have jokingly and a hundred percent seriously said we should get matching tattoos to remember this. Wow, and we did I purposely needed this one to be somewhere where I can remember and people can ask So that I can share. Hey, this was a hard thing that I did The burning and the reconciling and if god could make a way for me to do that And he could certainly make a way for you And so that's just one of the many all of them have their stories and it's for this reason Just god is in the business of remembering what he has done for us This is the crossroads daily. No experts. No perfect people just honest conversations about what happens when the bible shows up in real life Hey, i'm alex i'm arturo i'm kirsten and i'm peter today we're in joshua 4 They finally did it the israelites got to the promised land They have just experienced this incredible miracle of god parting Waters for them that they have walked through and gotten to the other side and god asked them Asks them to do this really interesting thing of taking 12 stones out of the river to create this memorial for them to Remember what god did for them that day and I feel like when i'm reading scripture and there's some weird stories like this or why did he ask them to do that the question that I always ask myself is God, what what can I just learn about you and your? Character from this and so what do you guys think we can learn about god from this story and what's happening here? I mean, I think uh one right off the bat is he knows us He knows how forgetful we are and he also knows that remembering remembering him remembering his faithfuls remembering the places that he's come through for us That's what builds our faith. That's what builds our confidence in him to take the next step the next time Yeah, and he knows the israelites. They forgot about the red sea after three days They're gonna forget about the jordan after three days, right? He's like, yeah, I want you to look back at those stones and remember. Hey this happened like it's gonna be okay Yeah, and so I think I just I love how deeply he knows us in the way that in a way he holds our hand Through the storms of life. Yeah Yeah, just a good dad like i'm i'm a mom like I actually think i'm gonna add to my prayer list just that like My kids can remember the moments that you know, I tried to be the best mom that I could

Like because there are times in scripture where god has to be a harsh Judge like he has to cast judgment and I think being able to remember the the ways that he brought them through can Keep them from overshadowing the the harsh Discipline that they need sometimes with like the love of the steadfast love of of the father um, which is just So good. Yeah I think that god cares about Remembrance I can be pretty sentimental. Sometimes I have this box in my basement a hat box a lot of people have I have collected over so many years. I think I started in high school of just there's just random What other people would probably call crap? in this box like pictures and birthday cards sometimes like christmas cards that people send that a lot of the time they just like Throw away or what? I don't know what little notes, whatever and Every so often I will when i'm like cleaning out my basement or trying to find something else I'll see the box and i'll pull it out and i'll start going through and some parts of me are like and i'm just sentimental i'm sappy like god wants me to live in the moment and This reminds me like god cares about remembrance like I get to Remember some really happy times some really hard times Some different seasons that god brought me through like he cares about us like looking back And remembering it's not just sappy. Mm-hmm. It's not just definitely not and oh okay, so the memorial stones for me are literally on my sleeve when we were Gonna talk about this. I'm like, yes, that is the reason why

I started putting tattoos on my body. Wow. This is exactly why to remember any tattoo that you see on me Is to remember wow Can I share one? Please give us a tour the one well We don't have time for all of them and I don't have many but I want to share this one I don't even know if the camera can this is the x-men The x-men symbol i'm a huge nerd Love x-men. I got to remember that. No, it's very not hard to forget because x-men 97 is back and it's such a good show but it's back what it what it reminds me is that I Can reconcile friendships long story short? I burned really bad like I burned bridges really badly Like I burned friendships. It was bad. I was the antagonist in that long story short Years later It was enough for me to like write them Drop off a letter in their mailbox Hoping that then we could meet in person. We met in person Wow and Reconciled with all of them, but with at least two of those friends. We x-men 97 has had just released on Disney Plus and And we were already watching it individual we used to watch every Marvel movie together. I mean, these were my core friends that I burned Reconcile and the last two episodes of the first season come out and we decide to watch them We decided like try to see where the friendship can go after years of not having it We watched the last two episodes at a friend's house and we have jokingly and a hundred percent seriously after that season finale Said we should get matching tattoos to remember this Wow And we did the two of my buddies out there Caleb and Jordan got these matching tattoos. We went together We got them on the same day and when we talk about Remembering and how it is in God's character for us to remember Wow This is just one of those and I put it here purposely these guys put it on their shoulder their calf I purposely needed this one to be somewhere where I can remember and people can ask So that I can share. Hey, this was a hard thing that I did the burning and the Reconciling and if God could make a way for me to do that and he could certainly make a way for you

And so that's just one of the many all of them have their stories and it's for this reason Yeah, God is in the business of remembering what he has done for us Mm-hmm, and I put it on my sleeve because I forget I would forget. Otherwise, I think yeah So good. Oh, yeah, that's not to endorse tattoos, but why not about it? There you go There you go. What are some other stones you guys have? I try to shared his yeah his stones Yeah, I mean I also have a tattoo of an angel on my calf me and my husband got them to remember the church that I started my faith in It's where I got baptized it's where him and I got married and it's so funny because I remember my sister remembers how every Day, I'd be like I'm never getting married. I'm never having kids like the world is too crappy like I can't I can't do this and For God to redeem that and to give me a Loving safe husband when I had had lots of unsafe men in my life is just like yeah that that remembrance of his ability to redeem and that's also why I got my tattoo and it's That it's so beautiful and that passes on his arm. And yeah, I get asked about it all the time, right? It's so cool Yeah, it's good. I mean, I've got a tattoo story, too But I feel like I have it. I'm gonna bring a different one up because this one was recent This was really really cool. I was in an Anglican service this past weekend with my parents. They go to an Anglican Church and They sang a hymn that I remember loving as a child beat out my vision if you ever heard it be thou my vision, Oh Lord of my heart and and When I tell my faith story I often especially recently when I'm summarizing it I talk about oh like my relationship with God really began in high school and God gently reminded me in that service he's like hey like I was you were with me and I was with you then when you were a kid and you were Singing this when you were eight years old, you know And like and I was like, I literally started tearing up in this little church and guys like yeah Like I was with you like and I maybe just think about how often Because the stories we tell ourselves become our reality how how much do we leave out how much do we not remember how much when?

We're telling our stories to ourselves and other people Are we starting to like almost edit out or forget about so many pivotal moments and God was just so kind To remind me that he was with me the whole time. So yeah, beautiful. Yeah, I Think though the actual word stone like these were actual physical stones, but I think about other Areas or other things That people use stones for to remember Gravestones is one that comes to mind I had someone really, really close to me who was my old youth pastor and he married me and my husband. He died about a year ago and was really close with my parents. And my parents just sent me a selfie yesterday because we just passed the anniversary of his death of them at his gravestone. And what a beautiful way to remember his life. It's a physical thing that just represents remembrance. I think about my wedding ring. That is a stone, a thing that helps me remember every single day. And this stone, this ring is not as pretty as it probably was on the day that my husband Cameron bought it. It's rough, it's beat up, it's not as shiny. And that is actually a really good representation. That helps me remember what we've been through in our marriage. And I get to look at this and be reminded every day of not only what my faithfulness to Cameron looks like, but what God's faithfulness to us has looked like

in our marriage as well. I love that. Stones have a weight and a permanence and a gravity to them. When you start talking about the stones, it's like, oh, that's how important remembrance is. And that's what it takes to remember, is something with weight, something with some gravity. I mean, that tattoos on your body forever. I mean, that's such a beautiful way, that ring. I mean, these are things that are just the gravestones. Those are for the living, not for the dead. That's just beautiful, that's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, these stones that God asked them to create into this memorial, that was not for God. That was for them. And so I don't know where you might need to remember God's faithfulness today and maybe there's a physical representation of that for you, but it might even be worth some time today spending in remembrance and thinking about what God's faithfulness has been in your life. ♪♪♪