Societal Amnesia: A poem by Joshua Hope

It has given me a reason to be free.

To trust in God with all my strength.

It is also the reason I have adopted humility.

How could it possibly be that the entire world

Forgets because of me?

Everything to do with me,

Every good I have ever done?

Focussing only upon the negativity.

Maybe this negativity,

In fact is the reason everyone forgets about me.

I have often wondered that.

Every good I have ever done.

What obligation do they have to remember me?

This is the question that burns through my mind.

The answer is incessantly,

None at all.

Satan is trying to kill me.

God has a greater hand upon me.

Still, it’s not a matter of pride.

It’s a matter of security.

At first, it irritates me,

A nuisance designed to pester me.

Otherwise, a thorn to humble me.

However, this nuisance collects

As a snowball on a snowy, slippery slope.

Have I done something wrong? I question.

Have I deserved this injustice?

Ultimately, the reality that you are forgetting

Is the truth that vindicates me,

Makes sense of all of the negativity that you remember about me.

It is so confusing,

Happening so often,

I begin to think I am losing my mind.

How the full entirety of humanity’s consciousness is steered like the rudder of a ship

By the house of God.

How great a responsibility, then, House of God

To guide the people of the world in the truth.

Without exception.

At first, it irritates me.

Has God abandoned me?

Slowly, God reminds people.

I watch in delightful agony,

Even as the broken methods I have been using

To stimulate people’s memory cease working.

God Himself reminds them,

Of a time of His choosing.

Satan is trying to kill me.

God has a stronger hand upon me.

It irritates me,

Then it angers me.

It infuriates me that people could be so insensitive,

Care so little about me.

I become filled with indignity and voice my displeasure.

This only fuels the negativity and collective loss of memory

Of all the good I have done.

I stumble and get angry.

I regret it after.

At first, I regret after.

After a while, I feel justified in that anger.

After all, Satan is trying to kill me.

Do you not care at all about me?

It begins to feel like God is losing His hand on me.

I become desperate.

It feels like the truth that vindicates me is in darkness.

I am bracing for society’s memory to forget about me completely,

Focus entirely on the negativity.

That negativity turns to hostility.

People become infuriated with me.

I am humbled.

But then, only to a degree.

Frantically, I try to stimulate people’s memory.

I am not ready.

God has abandoned me.

Satan is trying to kill me.

Suddenly, God Himself reminds them.

Slowly, God reminds them of the truth that vindicates me.

Hardly slowly at all.

It hits like a freight train.

The emotions are overtly evident.

Overwhelming.

Like a symphony’s chorus climax.

Still, God remembers me.

He has a stronger hand upon me.

And it reminds me of the reason people are losing their memory.

God has chosen me.

I am His servant.

I realize that my identity,

And who I have been called to be

Is for them and not for me.

It’s not me. It’s not me. It’s not me.

My life, including their struggle with memory,

Is about more than me.

I accept to be their servant.

So that their memory,

Their identity,

Can be at liberty.

I don’t have to defend myself.

God’s stronger hand is upon me.

He will defend and vindicate me,

Because I have been chosen;

A servant of humanity.