Don't Forget to Remember

Two ways to Cultivate Joy

Choose joy: what does that actually mean? Is it really a choice when things are simply not going well? Is it bypassing our feelings? Ignoring reality?

In Exodus, we see a joyous moment when the Israelites cross the Red Sea and are saved:

“I will sing to the Lord for he is highly exalted…The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” (Exodus 15:1a, 2a)

These verses begin a string of twenty-one verses of praise, so joyful that it’s actually a song: The Song of Moses and Miriam.

Imagining two million people (experts’s estimates) singing this song together is mind boggling! This miraculous and monumental moment marks the end of over four hundred years of slavery. It would be remembered and celebrated for thousands of years to come- both in the annual celebration of Passover and in the observation of a weekly Sabbath (we’ll get to this later).

But after crossing the sea, they still face some obstacles— namely the desert before them with no water. That’s okay - surely the same God who just removed the waters will have no problem providing some. But a day goes by without it. Then another. On day three, they find it; but when they taste, it’s bitter. All that joy has been dried up by the desert sun.

Where is the God of their salvation now, the One in their song?

Shouldn’t they just ask God for water, believing he didn’t lead them here to die? Instead, the Israelites grumble. They ‘murmur’ or complain against God and Moses. How quickly the sound of two million people singing turns into two million people complaining. If joy is connected to remembering, it’s clear the Israelites forgot.

Over three hundred times in Scripture we are told to remember. But what are we supposed to remember?

This very event is actually tied to the fourth commandment which tells us to remember the Sabbath day:

Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you…Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. (Deuteronomy 5:12, 14a, 15a)

Essentially, they are told to remember the Sabbath - to rest - so they will remember their past state of slavery. As they rest once per week, they are to remember this joyous rescue when God freed them from nonstop work. It’s a weekly celebration.

How does receiving the gift of a weekly Sabbath cultivate joy? For twenty-four hours, we stop working and we rest. We take time to delight in God and how he made us by pursuing life giving activities, doing things for enjoyment instead of duty. And we worship him as good, whether by gathering with our community or simply enjoying his presence and creation. Part of joy is choosing something good - rest - instead of endless work. Sabbath means we stop trying to restore the world around us and instead we allow God to restore us. Partaking in this rhythm is a way to remember who is God and who is not. We are not. It’s almost like God knew that even though the Israelites were freed from slavery, they would be tempted to become slaves again of their own volition.

Do we not need this same reminder today?

For our family, Sabbath is the best day of the week. This weekly rhythm means rest never stops coming: we’re never more than six days away from leaving the dishes piled high, enjoying pancakes for breakfast, and entrusting our worries and cares to God for a whole day. It’s an invitation into joy week after week.

And beyond Sabbath, we can also keep a record of our joy - like the Israelites did in a song. We can name the ways God has provided, met us in time of need, or simply been present to us in a more tangible way. I’ve been working to write down these moments, a track record of how God has come through in my life or spoken to me. I never cease to be encouraged when I go back to these writings and I’m often shocked at how quickly I’ve forgotten them. It’s when I find myself in the wilderness that I need to remember how God met me in other terrain. We will all experience hardship; we will all run out of water in the desert. And it’s in these times we must not forget to remember.

In these times of hardship, we don’t ignore reality. If I was in the desert without water for three days, I would be thirsty and scared, too. The Israelites had great need. But is there a way to acknowledge our need and remember? To say, “God, I am thirsty now and I remember how you provided for me then.” Can we hold the tension of what was and what is and what we know will come?

So, what does it mean to actually choose joy? Perhaps it’s less about picking one emotion over another and more about adopting a way of life that cultivates joy itself. Maybe it’s about documenting God’s goodness over the course of our lives and remembering it often, recalling his faithfulness when we are in the desert. And maybe it’s about receiving joy every week in Sabbath, remembering that God invites (commands) us to stop, rest, delight and worship regardless of our season.

He offers us rest every single week. And he invites us to remind him of his past provision so that when we are in need, we pray these things back to him: Yahweh (the I am) — this is who you were, this is who you are, and this is who you will always be!