Larry Heimlich, a 92 year-old Holocaust Survivor, is pictured here reading a dedication plaque at the Holocaust Monument in Chicago. With the exception of his sister, all of the members of his immediate family were murdered at the Auschwitz-Birkanau concentration camp.
When referring to the Nazi Holocaust, Jewish people now use the phrase, “Never Forget!” Because to forget can invite repetition; in other words, those who forget the past are sometimes doomed to repeat it.
The Bible records the same message from God to never forget, a repeated directive over and over again reminding us to remember.
For example, the people of Israel were constantly reminded of their bondage, their slavery and their oppression.
“Remember you were slaves, your were in bondage, you had no hope, you cried out and God heard your cries and He set you free. Remember where you came from, remember who you were, or you will not understand where you must go and who you must become.”
My therapist once asked me to whom I share my story of pain and my history of mistakes. Truthfully, I don’t like sharing this part of my life, so I told him, “no one.”
I thought that being a part of God’s story gave me the ability to rewrite my history of pain and therefore eliminate all of my past suffering.
But if we do that, we will never understand what it means to be a part of God’s bigger story and to understand the power of a shared history that says, “Remember your slavery, remember your oppression, remember your bondage, remember that you cried out to God and He heard your prayers and set you free.”
This is our shared story!
One piece of the story that we all have in common is that we are broken, imperfect, and mistake-ridden people. Most of us do not want to acknowledge that this is our past, may be our present, or something we might even share in the future.
So what do we often try to do? We try to forget our past, our history, our pain, and our tragedy. We do not understand that remembering our pain helps us appreciate our victory, and that remembering our suffering helps us value our freedom.
If you don’t remember where you came from, then you will not understand the wonder of where you’re going. Remembering helps us envision our future with hope!
Here is how to formulate your story:
1) Recall the facts. Point to specific events that typified how someone let you down. When you describe the facts, the past comes alive in the present.
2) Retrace the path of the pain. Describe specific painful events in play-by-play fashion.
3) Express emotion. Write about the painful past with the emotions of both anger and sadness. Make sure you express these emotions along with your story.
Realize that the past has always been alive, covered up perhaps, but very much alive.
If you still carry its pain, the past hasn’t passed. Once you have released the painful events through words, you can know healing for your wounded soul. Your damaged self is no longer cloaked in denial, but now will have life to breathe and you will now be able to put it exactly where it belongs: in the past.
Next week we will discuss another concept about this journey of writing your story that will give life and a hopeful future. You won’t want to miss it!