REMEMBERING, AND FORGETTING

A few years ago I saw a post: “The 38 Most Haunting, Abandoned Places On Earth” and decided to scroll through these beautiful (and yes, haunting) photos of everything from abandoned asylums (creepy), to old subway stations, churches (one with the chairs still standing in rows and an infant’s coffin still in its place next to the altar).  All in all, each photo begged for a story.  Then I came to Photo number 22…an old ocean liner, wrecked, beached and rusted…but still somehow beautiful with the waves crashing near it.

Then I read the caption: “Wreck of the SS AMERICA – Fuerteventura, Canary Islands”.  Christened by then First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (the day before Hitler invaded Europe) the SS AMERICA was the most glamorous American ocean-liner at that time.  In the 50’s (after the war, when it was secured by the military for troop transport), it sailed from New York to Europe and back, as part of the old “United States Lines”.

And just the other day HISTORY MAGAZINE had an interesting article about the same ship (see link below the blog). And I, once again, found myself looking at the old photos and mementos from the time my mother and I sailed on that ship.

A few months after I was born (1958) my father returned to Frankfurt Germany where he was a part of the Army Band.  My mother and I stayed in Richland, Washington until the end of July 1959 when we boarded a train from Washington State to New York City…Pier 86 on West 46th Street, to be exact.  And there we boarded the SS AMERICA and sailed to Bremerhaven.  We sailed Tourist Class, sharing a stateroom with another mother and her young daughter.  My Mom kept a bit of the memorabilia and so I’ve always known about this ship, and our time aboard.  We sailed (as opposed to flying) because of my Mom’s fear of flying (she only flew once, that I know of, and that was our return trip to the States…because there was no room on the liner when we were to depart…they drugged her up).

It was on board this ship that I learned to walk…with the aid of the Cabin Steward and some of the crew.  This ship holds a special place in my life and my heart…now a shipwreck at the Canary Islands, home to fish and a beautiful photographer’s model of “haunted abandonment”.

What should we remember, and what should be forget?

What is the good of “remembering”, when the things of the past even those things that mean something to each of us, are nothing but skeletons or memories?  There IS some good to looking back, and like everything, there is some bad as well.  I’m a bit sad to see the hull of what had been a “majestic lady of the seas”, and one that had a place in MY history, abandoned and decaying.  But on the other hand, God speaks of “memories” in terms of strengthening the present day.  And in those terms I can look on this photo and remember that Mom had a great time aboard, and I learned how to walk (undoubtedly the reason I love cruises today).  I can thank God that we traveled alone across the country on train and then across the Atlantic without trouble, and in fact MADE new friends along the way.  I can thank God that the SS AMERICA gave 54 years of splendid service to families like mine.  There should be nothing bitter about those kinds of memories.

AND God understands that some things are best forgotten…that is why He promises, when we ask, to forget the times we hurt Him, abandoned Him, made stupid, stupid mistakes and turned our backs on Him and our birthrights. 

God REMEMBERS His promises/covenants even when we forget, and asks us to remember the times when He rescued, saved, healed, fought…for us. (EX 13:3…example)  When we remember THOSE times, we can feel the power of faith surging back through our needy limbs.  God will never forget us or our His love for us (IS 49:14-16).

How then should WE live?  The answer is obvious and simple.  (PHIL 4:8) Don’t expect to be happy if you constantly think of the “sad”…don’t expect to be at peace if you dwell on discontent.  “Think on…” and remember the things that give you strength TODAY.  Life moves on, the universe is expanding daily, people change…God, in His own way, has “changed already” so that He can meet us where those things that are new to us exist.  This is a new day, and yet ANOTHER CHANCE to turn and walk in a different direction…let the good things of the past empower you to walk forward. 

The flip side, and the difficult side, is to do with ourselves what God does by forgiving our imperfections and sin (PS 103:12).  God forgives and forgets…sometimes we don’t.  We don’t forgive others and more often, we don’t forgive ourselves.  Remembering all the wrong things one did, all of the mistakes one made makes one depressed, cynical and angry…often filled and motivated by regret.

This is where the new day raises her head again…turn around, walk forward…you are not who you were, and you can define how your past dictates your future…God won’t force the issue.  Don’t expect your sins and indiscretions to be forgiven if you don’t ask Him, and don’t expect God to take care of any “repair work” that you need to make in your relationships with others, just because HE’s forgiven you.  But you CAN move forward.

No one sails on the SS AMERICA any more…but it is amazing to me how many people go nowhere because they’ve “stayed aboard the shipwreck”…thinking their past defines their future.

Whatever you need to do today…do it.  God has promised His power, through the “Breath of God” to strengthen you in any Godly purpose…and His people are standing beside you almost every week, at least.  And in case you need a little reminder of exactly what CAN be done…remember the good things, the true things, the beautiful things that God has already done.

JUN 24, 2019 | The 1970s Cruise Ship Nightmare That Ended in a Mutiny | In the summer of 1978, the S.S. America sent passengers over the edge. By ROBERT KLARA

https://www.history.com/news/cruise-ship-nightmare-ss-america-mutiny