Sorry, I Forgot

Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. ~ Lamentations 3:23 (NLT)

“Sorry, I forgot.” Maybe you’ve heard that excuse before. If you are a parent or teacher, you’ve probably heard it hundreds, maybe thousands of times. Usually this phrase is uttered when someone forgets to do a chore, complete a homework assignment, skips an appointment, or in some other way dodges their responsibility.

I once had an employee who tried this very tactic. She had gone on a wonderful vacation to the land of warm weather, sun, seas, and serenity. By all accounts, it was amazing! Then, on the Monday she was supposed to return, she didn’t show up at 8:00 AM like she was supposed to. By 8:30, I started to get worried. By 9:00, I was really worried, so I called her home. She picked up with a groggy voice. I had woken her up. After a little bit of back and forth, I finally asked why she wasn’t at work. Her response? “I forgot to reset my clock to Pacific Standard Time.” She had been at a resort whose time of day was a few hours behind ours. So, she got ready super-fast and raced to work. Making it in by 10:00 AM. She was really embarrassed and we never let her forget about it.

We should count ourselves lucky that we have a God who never-ever will use the excuse “I forgot.” Why? Because, well, He’s God and doesn’t forget anything. He’s perfect after all! Because of this, He is always right where He needs to be, doing exactly what needs to be done, at exactly the right time. And this faithfulness, means that He will always be there for us. In fact, our verse today captures this well. It reads, “Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”

If we believe this verse is true (and if you’re reading this, there is a good chance you do), then how do we cope with those times when God doesn’t seem to be there for us in our moment of need? The hard truth is that He is where He needs to be, doing exactly what needs to be done, at exactly the right time. We may not see it, feel it, or sense it, but He’s there. Because while His faith in His abilities is perfect, our faith in Him needs to be built. Sometimes that means we need to experience opportunities to trust Him, even when we can’t feel or hear Him. It’s those times in life which will allow us to understand how great His faithfulness is.