Only Take Care

03.06.13

Deuteronomy 3.9 9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.” (ESV)

According to my study Bible, the word Deuteronomy, means (roughly) “copy of this law”. Moses was not giving a second law in this book, but preaching the original law to the people of Israel a second time. Repetition is the mother of learning… and so it is only fitting that Moses said, “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.”

I think one of the greatest struggles a believer faces is the struggle to remember. And so from the get-go Moses said, only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget… It seems to me the biggest part of my life job description is doing just that: only taking care… Giving time, effort and intention to remembering who I am and what I am; and what I am supposed to be doing.

I think it’s hard in the heat of the moment to remember who I am. I think it’s hard to be disciplined when someone else is being a butt-head to remember. But regardless of the heat of the moment, I am to remember: that is the greatest part of my doing (if I feel the need to do anything at all). I’m to take care of me and what I’m supposed to know.

There are seasons of life when there is much happening: weddings, graduation, births, funerals, vacations, etc. Those are big distractions, but much of our lives are given over to the regular old stuff – the usual. My feeling is, it is in the usual stuff that when we can get most lost and forget who we are and what we’re supposed to be about. Today is not just another day – it is a day to only take care and keep my soul diligently, lest I forget…

Reading the word helps me remember. Taking with other believers helps me remember. But there is an intentionality that must accompany how I do what I do so I can remember me, ande and what I’m supposed to be doing.

Perhaps only taking care means getting rid of some stuff in my life that causes me to forget. We in the west are totally bombarded with distractions. Maybe it includes praying five times a day. Whatever it takes, Moses encouraged them to only take care to remember and if it was vital for them, it is probably vital for me.

Father, so much of my days are buried in mundane distraction and today, I pray for the strength and courage to only take care. I pray for Your divine help to remember my relationship with You and my calling as Your child. Today, I thank You for the reminder to remember and to do what is necessary in my life to do just that. And may my days of remembering add-up to a legacy of remembrance that You are my God and without You I am nothing. Amen.