Kathrin Shaffer (00:01.538)
Hey friends, it's Catherine Schaefer from Unpolished But Called. Today is November 11th, 2025 and Remembrance Day. So I'm recording this today after the service and you will be hearing this tomorrow when everything starts to sound normal again. By then, people will be back at work, traffic will be heavier and the moment will already be fading into the background. But today...

today still feels heavy. The kind of quiet that sticks to you. So we gathered this morning in the hockey arena here in where I live in town. The ice was covered, but you could still feel the cold lingering beneath the floor. The bleachers were full, rose people sitting shoulder to shoulder, bundled in coats, heads bowed, and the stillness you don't see often anymore.

wasn't fancy, didn't need to be, but there's something about Remembrance Day that doesn't need extra words or music to make it meaningful. The meaning is already there. It's in the faces of the veterans, sitting near the front, in the hands of families, clutching old photographs, and in the silence that feels like respect itself. As I sat there, I kept thinking about what this day really means.

and how easy it is for that meaning to get lost. We live in a world that moves too fast. We scroll through tragedy, we consume news like entertainment, and we call that awareness. But remembrance, really remembrance, requires stillness. It asks us to stop, to look back, to let gratitude be uncomfortable again.

For the generations before us, remembrance wasn't symbolic. It was personal. They remembered faces, voices, moments. They remembered the fear, the waiting, the loss. For them, the silence wasn't a ceremony. It was survival. And somehow, in all our progress, we've let that kind of remembering fade.

Kathrin Shaffer (02:30.688)
Now it's an event, a tradition, something we show up to bow our heads for and then drive away from. And every year I wonder if we even notice how quick we are to move on. Because remembering isn't just about the past, it's about how we live now. It's about realizing that freedom didn't appear out of nowhere.

It came from sacrifice, from people who believed there were things worth standing up for, even when standing up might cost them everything. And maybe that's why this day feels different every year I get older, because I can see how distracted we've become. We post our poppies, we share a quote, we mean well. But meaning well isn't the same as remembering.

Deeply. Remembrance isn't supposed to fit neatly into a schedule. It's supposed to interrupt one. It's supposed to make us pause and ask, what am I doing with the peace I've been given?

So sitting there today, I realized just how quickly we forget, not out of disrespect, but out of routine. Because life has a way of pulling our focus towards the next thing, the next crisis, the next distraction. And yet, maybe remembrance is meant to be the thing that pulls us back to gratitude, to humility.

awareness. Because this day isn't about history, it's about humanity. About how easily we forget what people went through so that we could have the kind of normal we complain about. When I look around, or when I looked around that arena, it just hit me how sacred it is for roomful people to sit

Kathrin Shaffer (04:45.518)
still, to be quiet, to remember. And that shouldn't be rare. But it really is. And tomorrow, the world will go back to noise and speed and endless opinions. But I hope we don't forget this feeling too quickly. The weight of gratitude, the awareness that peace is not guaranteed.

and the reminder that remembrance doesn't belong to a single day in November. It belongs to the way we live when nobody's watching. Because remembrance isn't about what we say once a year. It's about what we do with the freedom we were given every day after. So the longer I sat with it today,

The more I realize that remembrance isn't really about war. It's about love. And we talk about courage, service, sacrifice. But underneath all of that is love. The kind that gives, the kind that endures, the kind that lays something down so someone else can stand. That kind of love feels rare now.

Because we live in a world that's forgotten how to be still, how to be grateful, and how to be humble. We're quick to voice opinions and slow to show honour. We scroll past names, past stories, past people who carried the weight of freedom on their backs. And then we wonder why gratitude feels foreign. And maybe that's why remembrance matters so much.

It forces us to slow down long enough to remember what love looks like when it costs something. And I sat there this morning, I couldn't help thinking about another sacrifice. The one that didn't just buy peace for a nation, but salvation for every soul. Jesus didn't go to the cross for comfort.

Kathrin Shaffer (07:09.112)
He went because love demanded it. That's the connection between the cross and the battlefield. Both are places where someone said, I'll go, when everything in them could have said, no. The soldiers we honor today fought for freedom we can see. Jesus died for freedom we can't. Both paid with blood, both.

changed the world. And that makes me think about how we're living in response to that. We were the poppy for those who fought, but how do we carry the cross for the one who died? We say, lest we forget, every November, but how often do we forget the one who told us, do this in remembrance of me?

I don't think those are separate ideas. I think they're connected. Because remembrance isn't just about looking back. It's about living forward. It's about asking, what will I do with the gift I didn't earn? Every breath of peace, every moment of safety, every chance to speak freely, that's grace. Undeserved.

unearned, freely given by people and by God. And when you see it that way, remembrance becomes less about mourning and more about meaning. It's not about standing for two minutes once a year. It's about standing for what's right when it's hard. It's about keeping our hearts soft in a world that wants to turn

everything into noise and division. It's about remembering that love, real love, is never convenient, but it's always worth it.

Kathrin Shaffer (09:18.732)
When I think of those who serve, I think of that line in 2 Timothy 4-7. I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I have kept the faith. That's what remembrance looks like lived out. It's endurance. It's finishing well. And that's what I want my life to reflect. Because remembrance isn't just gratitude for what's been done.

It's responsibility for what comes next. So, when the ceremonies end, when the poppies are put away, maybe remembrance can look like kindness when it's not required, or honesty when no one's looking, or faithfulness in the small things, because freedom was bought for those small things too.

Maybe it's choosing grace over judgment, forgiveness over bitterness, compassion over indifference, and that's how we keep the torch burning, not through tradition alone, but through transformation. Let me remember rightly, we live differently. And maybe...

That's the kind of legacy both the soldier and the savior hoped for. That their sacrifice wouldn't just be remembered, it would be reflected. So let's pray. Father, today we remember. We remember those who stood in the cold and the fear so we could stand in peace. We remember the ones who gave their lives so we could live ours freely. And remember,

your son, who gave his life so we could live eternally. Teach us not to take any of it for granted. Help us to carry gratitude like a banner, to love deeply, to serve humbly, and to live aware of the cost behind our comfort. Let remembrance move from our mouths to our hearts, from our hearts to our actions. May we live lives of honourable sacrifice and grace.

Kathrin Shaffer (11:42.464)
In Jesus name, amen.

Kathrin Shaffer (11:48.578)
Thanks for spending a few quiet minutes with me today. I know this episode's landing in your ears the day after Remembrance Day, but maybe that's the best time for it. When the noise has died down and the world's already moved on. And if you take anything from this, let it be this. Remembrance isn't supposed to fade when the crowds leave. It's meant to change how we live when nobody's watching. So this has been Unpolished But Cold.

I'm Catherine Shafer just trying to walk this faith thing out just one honest day at a time. You can find more at CatherineShafer.com and until next time live grateful, love deeply and don't forget what was done so you could be here.