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by Nathan Buck

I had a friend when I was younger whose parents would always say, "Remember who you are and who you represent," whenever we would go out. Even as a teenager I was impacted by the integrity and honor of that comment. My parents never said that to me, but I certainly felt the weight of that expectation based on my parents' occupations.

It is challenging to be in the midst of teenage adventures, or even adult ones, and have the presence of mind to think about how others may be affected by your immediate choices or actions. And without constant reminders or intentional work to remember, it is easy to let our awareness of our impact drift. It is easy to forget. It is easy to turn aside to things that feel good to us in the short term but long term have destructive personal and public consequences.

If we have drifted from God, how do we get back on course? If we have forgotten what He taught us to believe, how do we remember? If we have misrepresented God, how do we REpresent the integrity of His example?

Read 2 Chronicles 34:1-21. In a season where the kings of Israel demonstrated the forgetfulness that afflicted the nation, King Josiah comes to power. Previous kings revealed that Israel had done exactly what God warned the nation not to do. God had said, "When you come into the land and gain [everything]... be careful you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Deuteronomy 6). King Josiah was different.

At the age of 8, Josiah became king and showed a passionate desire to clean out the worship of foreign gods and clean up the integrity of the nation. When he was sixteen, he was actively pursuing God and reforming the nation. It was in this passionate pursuit of honor and remembering that something extraordinary happened.

After demolishing all the temples and images of false gods, and tearing down all the alters to foreign gods, Josiah commissioned the repair of the Temple in Jerusalem. Inside the Temple, during the repairs, the workman discovered the Book of the Law - the Word of God - given to Moses. Look at what Josiah does when he hears the Word of God. Why does he do that?

Josiah realized that even with all the purifying he had done, Israel still was far from living according to God's ways. His action was an act of mourning and humility. He wanted his own life, and the nation of Israel to be back on track with God - nothing else mattered. It had to be terrifying to realize how much Israel had forgotten of God's ways.

Take a moment and notice what happened here. Josiah's bold and passionate action to pursue God and cleanse Israel sets the stage for God's Word to be discovered. The King prepared the way, and the Word of God was again known among the people. All because SOMEONE remembered God.

Someone taught Josiah the ways of the kings that honored God, before him. Josiah wasn't old enough to know King David, and yet verse 2 says that Josiah walked in the ways of David and did not turn to the left or the right - meaning he didn't get distracted and did what was right. If not for that someone remembering, Israel could have continued to spiral away from God, and could have ceased to exist. Because of that someone, Josiah sought to remember more, and eventually gets the nation back on track, at least for a while.

Have you begun to forget God? Do you even know God's promises and how to live according to His ways? Will you passionately set aside every distraction and entertainment in order to seek God? What untruths or false beliefs need purified from your heart, the way Josiah purified Israel?

Take a moment and ask God to show you what parts of your life need refocused or purified. Take action to clean house and get rid of the amnesia of comfort and distraction. Then, read the Bible and apply God's principles to your daily decisions. Actively remember God by actively applying His ways to your life, your family, your work, etc.

And read next week's blog post, to see how our own obedience and remembering can have a world changing impact.

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