Today in history is 7 October. Perhaps you remember attending a friend's birthday party or watching a game of the World Series. For some, it's a national holiday or driving your own car for the first time. In fact, every day has both individual and collective memories just waiting in the wings. I'm a keen photographer, and I want to tell you about this date by looking at my Flickr site.
Last year I was in Melbourne and, among other activities, visited the sister of my colleague Amber, where she was living at the time. We prayed together. We shared Bible information. That was meaningful.
Three years ago, I was in Sydney's west at Featherdale Wildlife Park with my two Aussie grandsons. We saw the koalas and echidnas and so much more.
Five years ago, the Board of Directors of Jews for Jesus Australia met together, and I was with them. We prayed and read the Scriptures and had some good conversations about plans for the future. I was heading overseas the next week. It was a look-ahead meeting for sure.
If you want to see any of these photos and be similarly triggered in my memory or yours, feel free to look at my Flickr site (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobmendo/)
Over the years, you will have collections of memories as well. Not only where you were, but perhaps how you were feeling, and with whom you were enjoying or enduring life. That's the effect of memories. Do you ever light candles? Two years ago I was in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, at Temple Shalom and attended the evening prayer services. It was very sombre. And moving. It was a memorial event.
Four years earlier, I was in Brisbane for the Australian Pickleball Championships.
In 2017, I preached at the Perth Messianic Assembly in the afternoon after flying over just that morning.
In 2014, I gathered with the leadership of JFJ at the Council meeting in San Francisco.
And so many, many more. All on 7 October.
You get the idea. This, however, is not a mere travelogue. It's a walk down memory lane to unpack some personal and communal feelings. You see, today is 7 October, and 3 years ago, in Israel just next to Gaza, hundreds of soldiers breached a fence along the border with Israel and slew 1,200 people who were not engaged in combat. They were participating in a music festival. Jews and non-Jews were there, Israeli citizens and people from at least 25 other countries. 1,200 dead non-soldiers.
And those soldiers who invaded captured and took prisoners: another 250 non-military personnel. Many died in captivity; only some-- not enough-- were released within the next two years.
I've written before about some takeaways we Jewish people should have, or at least can process, as a direct result of that fateful day. My writing today is more invitational to each of you who is reading this. Whatever your position or current thought about that day 3 years ago. Whatever else you have on your plate today.
Please, I urge all the citizens of the world, red, blue, Liberal, Labour, Dutch, Irish, South African, Aussie-- whoever you are, and wherever you are just now (I'm writing this on an airplane from Townsville back home)-- please ask yourself what you would have done, and what you would have felt 3 years ago at that music festival. Ask yourself what you can do today to ensure that all people, including the Jewish people you know, or those you don't know, can be safe and not have to look back over their shoulder at who might be coming to attack.
Politics is often messy. Politicians often lie while smiling into a camera. I have shared my own lies enough in life that I know how to do it. So, please, as you read this, don't say, "Yeah, but what about..." and insert a politician or a military tactician or some local yahoo whom you don't respect. Let's do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God, even if you don't personally believe in a God above.
Let's be the kind of people who do the right thing. On 7 October, on the 10th and throughout our days. Where were you on 7 October? Where will you be on 11 October, and what will you do to make the world a better place then?
