Epilogue - Day 2 of 5: When I had the idea for #31daysofcalling, I didn’t think much about what the responses to it might be. I mostly thought about my end of it—sharing how God has led us on this path. But once the days started rolling, people were responding! The ripple effect of sharing stories of God’s faithfulness has been amazing. In light of that, if this journey has interested you I’d love to offer some ideas for how we can respond.

The first is to REMEMBER…which is a frequent theme in the Old Testament of the Bible. God had done so many things to deliver His people from terrible situations, provide for them, and protect them, and they were SO prone to totally forget what He had done and lose faith. So over and over, He tells them to remember how He had helped them, remember how He answered their prayers.

I can big-time relate to their forgetfulness. When hard things happen, my first response is always to freak out. It takes some hours or days or weeks for me to remember what is true about God, and the many ways He has been faithful in the past. And once I do, the freaking out usually subsides and the trusting can begin. All from the act of REMEMBERING.

Writing #31daysofcalling has been a joy because I’ve been immersed in so much remembering. From brainstorming the list of the 31 things to thinking hard about the details to write them up to digging for old pictures, this is the most remembering I’ve ever done in a month. And how does it feel? AMAZING. Man, I am blown away looking back at all these instances of God’s faithfulness, big and small. I am thrilled to have a written account of it, and yes, I do plan to make these into a little book for our family to look back on when we have hard days in Ethiopia.

So my encouragement to you and me is the same as God’s encouragement to His people in the Bible—REMEMBER! Look back on your own life and look for the ways that He has answered prayers or given you blessings or taught you things during hard times. Don’t just look at today’s circumstances and despair—look BACK to God’s past faithfulness in sending Jesus and in your own life, and plant your hope there. #lovesinethiopia