My first blog since our website was wiped out by a virus! I was a bit dumped that all previous inputs were sucked into cyberspace. However, it saves me from being nostalgic & dwelling in the past, & challenges me to live in the present & press forward in faith, hope & love.
I'm the hoarder in our household; Dorothy would reduce my wardrobe by 66% if she had her way. I still haven't fully forgiven her for throwing out my green Adidas sweat shirt, worn with pride & affection since secondary school. She recently persuaded me to round up & release all our music album tapes to charity. This wasn't too painful as we never listened to them & yet I can't face letting go of my vinyl records, which rarely get an outing these digital days. What's that all about? My life wouldn't change a whit if I ditched my records.
Perhaps it's a middle-age thing (I'm nearly 46!)? Fortunately my teenage kids (& wife) are among God's gifts for shifting me from ruts & the temptation to wallow in the past. I'm now contemplating putting all my compact disks on a hard disk to allow me easier access to them!
It's essential to forget some things but also vital to remember other things, like from where we've come, not to escape there but to be sure of who we are. The opposite of remember is not forget but dismember. Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to his disciples & said, "Do this to remember me." By remembering Jesus death & our connection to him we find the strength to go forward in faith, hope & love.
It is a comfort to know that even though I might lose my memory & marbles there are people who, I trust, would ensure that I am not dismembered from God's Family & Kingdom. Jesus said, "The person who confesses me before people I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven." I may lose all my cd's, photos, posessions, clothes, family, friends, faculties, memory, but never God's eternal grip on me, for Jesus has completely WIPED OUT ALL MY SIN!
Does any of this strike a chord with you?
Minister
