Do you remember?  Do you remember what hopelessness feels like?  We struggle along the “Way”.  But how can the struggle be compared to endless sins?  Do you remember?

Do you remember when there was no prayer?  We look back now and have forgotten the agony of life.  Like the rest of the world, we called on things of our imagination.  We learned from others what they thought worked.   We did not know God’s Christ.  All we knew was his Holy Law. 

Let a vicious dog stand in my way, and I will find another way around.  Even if the way around takes far too long and robs me of my expectation, it is better to arrive with all my limbs.  Do you remember?

So it is with the world.  Do you remember?  They have nowhere to go but expectation of judgement.  Their soul knows it and they avert their eyes.  Do you remember?

The cold of hopeless sleep.  The necessity for sin as a distraction from what is sure to come.  The chasing after things that do not last, for what lasts does not belong to them.  Do you remember?

They cannot pray and no one prays with them.  So they worship angels and idols.  Prayer to them is the hope of gain.  What little and temporary they can gain with their hands is the sum of their prayer.  Do you remember?

Or have we begun to feel sorry for ourselves?   The way of God can be impossibly arduous if we’ve try to walk it in the flesh.  If such is the case, we have forgotten.  Remember.