Annie F. Downs - Remember God

Copyright 2018 by Annie F. Downs

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

978-1-4336-4689-8

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Classification: 231

Subject Heading: GOD \ LOVE \ CHRISTIAN LIFE

Cover design by Matt Lehman.

Author photo Micah Kandros.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is taken from the New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Also used: The Message ( msg ), copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson.

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This one, dearest, is for you.

Foreword

When we loaded up a U-Haul and drove to Nashville to start a new season of life in a new town for our family of six, we only knew three people in the entire city. Annie Downs was one of them. My wife, Rea, and I have known Annie for twenty years. We were all part of a college ministry together at the University of Georgia. (Go Dawgs!) It was one of those movements that marks your life forever and leaves you saying, Ill go anywhere and do anything for You, God. God took us up on that prayer twenty years later when He called us to Cross Point Church. God had taken Annie up on her prayer, moving her here ten years before. Being new to Nashville and knowing Annie... its not fair. If you know Annie, you know the whole city. Annie Downs is friends with everyone.

But most important, Annie is a friend of God. You hear it when she prays. Its in her eyes when she talks about Jesus. We see it at the dinner table in how she loves our kids, and its evident in the way she loves our church. Ive figured it out: the reason Annie has so many friends in Nashville is because the closer you get to Annie, the closer you feel to God. When you get around Annie, you can sense the presence of her favorite friend.

Youll sense Gods presence in this book because, in these pages, Annie is going to let you close. Probably closer than in anything shes ever written. Possibly closer than anything youve ever read. This is high-risk as an author. Man, its high-risk as a human. When you let people that close into questions and convictions, wrestling and wandering, uncertainty and surrender, its high-risk, but its also high-reward. The reward of this book is that its going to help you with your memory problems.

As humans we have two kinds of memory problems: we forget the things were supposed to remember, and we remember the things we should forget, kind of like spiritual amnesia. When that happens, you dont need a clich; you need a friend. A friend to come alongside you and remind you of the truth that matters most. The kind of truth that is still going to be true one hundred years from now. This book contains that kind of truth, and Annie Downs is that kind of friend. As you read Remember God , youll feel all the feels. Thats just your heart waking up to the glorious reality of what happens when you remember God well. But the peace that you will feel when you finish the book, I believe this peace comes from the greater reality that, in Christ, God remembers you.

I pray a hundred-year anointing over this book, and my prayer for you is that these words grow your faith and impact your life in such a way that matters one hundred years from now.

Kevin Queen, Lead Pastor

Cross Point Church, Nashville, Tennessee

O God, Your incarnate Son Jesus Christ is the eternal Word in whom may be read the good news at the heart of all that You are doing. Grant to all who speak or write what many may hear or read, that love of truth which leads to love of God, and that love of God which makes communication of thought a good and holy thing, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Canon Ian Jagger, Archdeacon of Durham Cathedral Durham, England

Introduction

What say we all just take a deep breath.

I need one.

I bet you do too.

When you pick up a new book, theres a reason. Youre looking for something. You may not know what exactly, but something. And with all my heart, I hope you find it.

When I start typing, Im looking for something.

And with all my heart, I hope I find it too.

Ive kind of gotten into yoga lately. This new studio opened in my neighborhood, and lots of my friends began to practice there. They play loud music, mostly pop and hip-hop, and Im almost guaranteed to have a friend in any class I take. Thats pretty much all the push I need to exercisegreat music and my pals.

As I started to attend classes, I really began to love it, but... I need a lot of guidance. So rather than being the annoying gal in the back row who needs a personal tutor, I chose instead to watch some YouTube videos with instructions and bought a mat (also with instructions, like showing me exactly where to put my hands and feet).

I try to mostly sign up for Emmys classes, because were friends, and if someone is going to make me do a standing split (Google it, and then die a little at how hard it is), I want to at least believe she likes me as a person. I also frequent the Wednesday night class taught by Koula, but it is VERY HARD and sometimes makes me feel like crying. Whatever.

The start of each class is the same. Childs pose, which is like youre bowing to someone, arms stretched fully in front of you, shins on the mat, body folded over your bent legs. Then Emmy tells us to breathe in through our nose and sigh out through our mouth. It feels silly the first time, making a loud sighing sound, but now it feels natural. It truly is like pushing out whatever has been aching inside of me that day, then sighing about the things I tried to hold in during a busy morning or a stressful meeting or a hard FaceTime conversation.

Its cleansing, it really is. The breathing and sighing prepares me for the work ahead that my body is going to do. Yoga hurts as we go, it stretches me, but its always worth it, even if I end class collapsed down again into childs pose. Covered in sweat. Muscles aching.

Breathing. Sighing.

Im breathing now. Sitting here, writing, wondering how this thing is going to turn out. For the first time in my writing life, I dont see the end of this book yet, because I dont know the end of the story. And it is so scary to me. Youve probably heard me say before how, when I write books, I dont feel like my job is to create them out of thin air but to find them. The books Im meant to write are already sitting on a heavenly shelf, and my job is to find each one, almost like mining for treasure as God directs me, whispers to me, and brings themes and stories to my mind. (I also like to think my grandmothers, since they missed seeing my books published on earth, have dedicated a portion of their bookshelves in heaven to my worksthe ones already in print and the ones that none of us know yet.)

But this one? This book is different.

Im writing it, but Im reading it too. Im listening and learning and figuring out with each stroke of the key that I need this. I need to remember God.

Andrew asked me to come over to record a podcast one daya Thursday. His wife, Alison, one of my best friends, was there with us, sitting on the couch drinking coffee. Their three daughters, Ella, Sadie, and Charlotte, were all at Vacation Bible School... much to my sadness because I find them endlessly entertaining.