Remembering Madam Lot

One of the shortest verses of the scripture is, “Remember Lot’s wife” Luke 17:32. I have been thinking about Lot’s wife, performing the biblical injunction of remembering her. But what is there to remember concerning a woman we have little information about. The Bible did not even dignify us with her name (Genesis 19), though she is called ‘Ado’ or IIdith or “Edith in Jewish tradition.

 So we do not know her name, but we are to remember her. Imagine having to give the eulogy at her burial, what would you say? Or sorry, she was never buried. But if she ever had a burial and I was chosen to give a eulogy, this would have been my eulogy:

“Madam Lot was a significant woman, who taught more in her death than in her life; the lessons are few yet very significant:

1  -   Madam Lot in death teaches that those who seek to move forward in life must focus on the future; they must forget yesterday’s losses and triumphs. The positives and negatives of yesterday has become chronicles, they are no longer necessary, except you want to be a yesterday’s man, or you want to be spoken of in past tenses. For they that look back wanting yesterday get frozen on the sand of time, never able to forge ahead in life. One of the greatest achievers the world has ever known said, ‘Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before’ (Philippians 3:13)

2  -   She also taught us the dangers of living in yesterday’s hurt and bitterness. She had walked away from her past, but her past still held her. Do you still look at your past decisions and life with anger, bitterness and pain? Do the errors of yesteryears still rob you of today’s joy? Then you also must remember Madam Lot…Do not allow the sorrow of your loss rob you of the greatness that is in your tomorrow. The fortune the Lot family left behind hurt Madam Lot; she wasn’t focusing on the great wealth and possibilities that were in her tomorrow. Leave the past where it should be… in the past. The only business you have in the past is to use it to evaluate and project into your tomorrow.

3 -   She taught us to focus on and be thankful for the now. No time is ever more important in your life than NOW. Now is…tomorrow is a gift you wait to receive, Yesterday a gift you have dutifully spent. She didn’t focus on the now…If she had, she would have counted and celebrate the gift of life, the opportunity she had of escaping destruction with her family, the grace of God that kept them. You also will need to learn to appreciate the Lord God for His present blessings. Our God is a God of Today, God’s promise and blessings are abundant today but we may not have them, if we are lost in what might have been, “God keeps renewing the promise and setting the date as today, just as he did in David's psalm, centuries later than the original invitation: Today, please listen, don't turn a deaf ear . . .” Hebrew 4:7(The Message). Will you also listen? Will you be thankful for today’s gift? Thank God; though you may not be where you want to be, still you are not where the devil wants you to be! Alleluyia!

Thank you all for your time”

Fisayo Adeniyi

Twitter: @fisayospeaks

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