Remembering Can be a Beginning

Many of you know about and might have seen the long running Musical show, The Fantasticks. The show’s original “off-broadway” production is the longest running stage production in American history – 42 years continuously. It has been performed in high schools, colleges and local theaters across the globe.

The music was created by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics written by Tom Jones. There is a special tune used to set the mood of the story that is performed at the beginning and at the end of the show. The tune entitled, “Try to Remember,” sets the stage for the story and gets us older folks thinking about what our lives once were. It is a story of our vitality and foolishness in youth that moves to cynicism, disappointment and boredom as we realize what our lives could have been if our dreams had been achieved.

The “Try to Remember” tune reminds us about the young September time of our lives as well as the December time of our lives. It begins, “Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow…………when grass was green and grain was yellow……..when you were a tender and callow (naïve) fellow.”

The story is a reminder for older folks, like me, recognizing that some change is doable even in our later years. For youth it is a warning and for those in between it offers a chance to change complete direction. The song goes on, “Try to remember when life was so tender that no one wept except the willow………when life was so tender that dreams were kept beside your pillow…….when life was so tender that love was an ember about to billow. Try to remember and if you remember then follow.”

As we move into our December years, the tune tells us, “Deep in December it's nice to remember although you know the snow will follow……….it's nice to remember without the hurt the heart is hollow………it's nice to remember the fire of September that made us mellow. Deep in December our hearts should remember and follow.”

Psalm 25:7 speaks to us in saying, “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!”  It is the rare person that lives life near perfection from childhood. I’d guess no one is near perfection if I had a guess. Of course we know a man who lived among us as perfection and we try to follow His example as we live our lives. I guess “try to follow” are the key words here.

In 1 John 2:16 we see what the world offers that we sometimes take for the taking, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”  While most people experience flaws in their early life, is that a necessary thing? God’s answer is no, but he forgives us our sin and gives us a chance to turn around when we seek Him in our lives.

Matthew 7: 24-27 wraps things up for us as we know we are forgiven, but we know the result of our folly: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall.”