Remember Me

I often keep praise and worship music going throughout my day, many times through Christian radio. Mark Schultz is one of my favorites and has composed some of the most beautiful, emotionally moving, and worshipful music of the past decade. One of his songs, Remember Me, debuted around the year 2000 and continues to move me still today.

During the peak of the song's debut, our eighth grade daughter was a young vocalist and our middle son, a junior, was a vocalist and guitarist. They often sang and played for church, school services or programs. In 2001, the senior class asked if they would do an arrangement for high school graduation. One senior, a good friend of our son as well as an accomplished pianist, chose to do an arrangement together with our son and daughter using Schultz’s popular song, Remember Me.

It was a beautiful rendition given that night, but what made it even more beautiful was the fact that I knew it may very well be the last time I would hear my children sing together. I was on the organ transplant list. I could feel my body growing weaker, and knew if I did not receive a transplant soon, my days were very few. It was early May, and unknown to me at that time, I had less than three months to live without a transplant.

As I listened that night, I tried to soak in every note, every beat, even every breath they inhaled. I tried to listen more keenly than I had before, that it might saturate every fiber of my being. I was so proud of the both of them, but they had no idea how much it meant to me.

"Remember Me...when you’re old enough to teach, old enough to preach, old enough to lead…"

So precious is our God, for He remembered me in my distress of illness and gave me much longer than the three presumed months through a perfectly timed organ transplant. He remembered my prayers for the faith of my children, who are now old enough to teach and to preach and have left to begin their own lives, leading their own children in the Lord. 

The song ends with: "Child of wonder, child of God, I’ll remember you— remember Me."

He remembered me. He remembers you.

The question is, “Do we remember Him as often as we want Him to remember us?”

If the only time we “remember Him” is in the middle of a crisis, then it is time to adjust our priorities. The Bible says that all creation testifies to His glory—the trees of the fields clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12) and even the rocks cry out (Luke 19:40). Do trees and rocks outdo us in glorifying our God?

Remember Him when you “sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up”. (Deut. 11:19) Remember Him at work and at play or in your idle time. Remember Him in your joys as well as your sorrows, your victories as well as your losses, your successes as well as your failures. Remember Him.

There are moments in my quiet time when I’ve been so lost in the Word and in worship that I find myself in place similar to the night I heard our kids perform that beautiful song. I want to soak in every God-breathed word, every beat of His heartfelt love letter to me, and every breath that God inhales as I worship Him, praising His holy name (Eph. 5:2), and exhales through His Holy Spirit into my spirit. (Job 33:4)

God remembers you. (Gen. 8:1) 

Remember Him.