Teach me some melodious sonnet

I've been having trouble remembering. I'm having trouble keeping in mind the message things that I am supposed to remember, anything from God's love and Christ's death to ransom us, to God's promise to hold us in Him. Sometimes everything that occurs around me is swirling so quickly that it seems like I'm losing any control over the situation. It's easy to feel that way in the last week of a semester, when everything comes due at the same time, and meanwhile you're being called on by every other party imagineable.

The amount of things I still have to do is absurd. Committments seem to be piling up, not retracting (I added another one for tomorrow--just today). Everything crunches into play tomorrow, and I wonder how I'm going to get it all done. My stress is causing me to be short and uncaring with others. I wasted too much time and now I'm paying the consequences of my laziness. But nothing here is unmanageable, and my shortness and uncaringness is forgiveable. That is what the Scriptures teach--that even when we fail, God will forgive us and set us on our feet. He doesn't just extend a hand to help us up, He picks us up and places us on our feet.

My goal through all these things is to remember the Gospel. I do that in a number of ways, from memorizing Scriptures and hymns to trying to surround myself with people that will constantly remind me of it (which works intermittently). But through all this, why is it that I seem to so often forget and lose myself in my surroundings? I feel like such a failure, "prone to leave the God I love". What a shame. But when I beat myself up over it, I'm not remembering the Gospel any better than when I miss the mark initially.

I speak here of varying things, from my shortcomings to my outstanding obligations. But the theme that permeates all this is that the Gospel can redeem all of that. It is through Christ that I am empowered to live more righteously and through Christ that I can find the strength to accomplish all that I need to accomplish. I know that. I can even write it on a CD jacket. I just need to grunt down and remember it from day to day. It just consistently kills me that I'm not able to do that. I feel like I should have that down pat by now. But even when I am fleeting and unfaithful, God is changeless and faithful in all things. And that is amazing.

"Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above; Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it, mount of God's unchanging love" (Robinson)

Luke