Of Remembrance and Captivity

Remember the captivity of your fathers? Well - that is obviously not applicable to me. My father, nor his father before him, have ever been in captivity. As a matter of fact - I don't know of any ancestors that have been. Bondage . . . not so much. Slavery . . . yeah - another big no. So this scripture doesn't apply to me - they might as well have said remember your childhood barbie dolls. I didn't have any of those either. This is merely a scripture that is completely meaningless to someone of my great understanding and wisdom.

And yet I have not been able to get this scripture out of my head for a few months now: Remember the captivity of your fathers! What is it that I am supposed to be remembering?

The easy answer is this: I need to learn my history. I need to learn and remember things about world history. I need to learn and remember things about American history. I need to learn and remember things about our family history. And most importantly I need to remember my personal history.

These captivating thoughts (no pun intended - OK - maybe it was intended) originated from the captivity I have found myself in recently. Financially my wife and I made a real bone-headed decision that has put us into financial bondage. We have lost freedoms and independence because of this mistake. The thing that haunts me most about the situation we find ourselves in is that it could have and should have been avoided. I was taught by my father, on multiple occasions, the history of my grandfather, Grandpa Mac. If only I had remembered my grandfather, because what I said about not having anyone in my family come into captivity is just not true. I was just not thinking broadly enough to include other kinds of captivity besides slavery.

My Grandpa Mac owned a real estate business that ultimately failed during a real estate downturn. My father never forgot that difficult time in my grandfathers life and he tried to teach his children to avoid the same pitfalls. To my fathers credit, he did learn the lesson for himself and he has not found himself repeating his fathers experiences. My dad never said not to invest in real estate, but he cautioned me countless times about the nasty realties of the housing market during tough times. He gave advice about not getting to exited with the "good times" because the bad times were inevitable. He warned of not purchasing too big of a house or not getting caught up in too much debt. His example was one of financial conservatism. He truly did his job as a parent in providing me with enough information to make wise choices.

So what did I do during a real estate boom? I let myself get talked into some very risky investments that "could not fail". I was not told this by someone being dishonest with me, I was told this by someone who I trust and admire very much. I didn't even check into the claims or thing twice about the investment. I just said sure! So it should not have been a surprise that things turned out the way they did. I should have heeded the warnings that I had received since I was old enough to understand money.

Now I am left to ponder my own captivity. If I were to cast this situation off as "bad luck" or "who could have known", then I think would be doing myself a disservice and more importantly I believe I would be offending God. The Israelites were repeatedly cautioned to remember their own captivity. I must not ever forget the lessons I have learned from this financial setback. I must never forget what greed feels like. I must never forget how causally I risked my families security for a mere $2,000.00. I must never forget how strong the grip of debt is. I must never forget the importance of frugality. I must never forget how fragile finances are. I must never forget the mercilessness of creditors. I must never forget the injustice I have caused to my creditor because of my poor choices. I must never forget my captivity.

We are responsible for knowing and remembering the captivity of men and women throughout all ages and we must be willing to apply the lessons we learn from them. Oh Man, Remember - and perish not!