Inter-Varsity Press

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

1. Beauty and ugliness

2. Silence and speech

3. Fear and trust

4. Thankfulness and bitterness

5. Joy and grief

6. Delight and despair

7. Awake or asleep?

8. Life and death

Foreword

In times of trial and suffering, especially when the end of the tunnel seems distant, we may react in one of two ways: either we can sink into despair and frustration, looking down to the ‘cellar’ of our life, or we can lift up our eyes to the ‘attic’, where we contemplate a wider horizon, a new vision of our personal tragedies. Remember is an amazing example of the second attitude.

Rhonda Watson writes with the sensitivity of a tender heart, tested in the furnace of trial, and the wisdom of someone who has learned to depend utterly on God for her daily portion of strength. I greatly appreciate the combination of the subjective – her own feelings and experience – with the objective truths of the Scriptures. The book is constantly rooted in the Word, thus avoiding a merely subjective approach to suffering which is so popular today as a result of Eastern religious influence.

Remember provides not only godly inspiration, but also a practical way to talk to yourself and master your thoughts and emotions in times of distress. The presentation in each chapter of a pair of opposite realities – beauty and ugliness, silence and speech, and so on – reminds us of the spiritual battle inside, and the need to lift up the eyes of faith so that, like Moses, we may ‘endure as seeing Him who is invisible’ (Hebrews 11:27). Beautifully written, each chapter ends with a prayer, a summary and a space for your personal reflection, which greatly help the reader to apply new insights to their own life.

As the author of a book on suffering and finding myself often under the fire of trial, I cannot think of a better devotional reading for anyone coping with painful situations. I warmly commend Remember, with the conviction that the reader will feel renewed and encouraged by every single page.

Dr Pablo Martinez, psychiatrist, and author of A Thorn in the Flesh: Finding Strength and Hope Amid Suffering

Preface

This book is an account of my experience of dealing with Motor Neurone Disease. I share a little of the physical aspects of adapting to this disease, but mostly I share my inner journey. Doctors and therapists routinely ask me about my physical symptoms and needs. I have found that hardly anyone asks me about the emotional and spiritual challenges I face. In many ways this is the most acute need I feel. How am I to make sense of my experience? How am I to make peace with the sense of loss? How am I to be real in my relationship with God? These were the questions that drove me as I wrote this book. At first it was written to myself and I had no thought of others reading it. As I reached the end of ‘talking to myself’, it occurred to me that others might benefit. If you are reading this, then I am thankful that God has used this book for others, and I pray for your encouragement, in whatever circumstances you find yourself.

Rhonda Watson, November 2010