It happened again.
I came back from the grocery store and my wife asked me if I got a certain item
that she had asked me to purchase. I had to confess again, “Forgot it.” Even
carrying a bag with two cream-filled donuts did not seem to diminish her
disappointment. Such is the life with a person with a great memory… albeit a
short one. After a recent date with my wife I randomly asked, “Do you think my
memory is getting worse?” Graciously she responded, “It is just about the same
as it has always been. It is not so much that it is bad, it is just that at
times you really are not paying attention to what is being said. The glaze in
your eyes indicates that your mind is preoccupied with something else when I am
talking to you.”
After a sense of relief that I was not in
early stages of dementia, I felt a tinge of regret that I could be so
inattentive to someone I love. Then I began to consider how often this lack of
focus affects me. From that thought I wondered how common this problem is among
the general population. Actually I was looking for some sort of rationalization
that I was no worse than most people in the world.
Upon further reflection I concluded that forgetfulness
is most likely an individual and collective problem that impacts humanity.
There is ample evidence that individually people tend to be forgetful – there
are a lot of men as inattentive as me! Females respond, “No kidding,” There is
also ample evidence that people may even display collective amnesia. One may
conclude that humans never plan to forget; they do it quite naturally.
A biblical account came to mind about how
easily we lapse into forgetfulness. In Joshua 24 the children of Israel have
come to the place where they have now entered and occupied the land that God
had promised them. Their leader, Joshua, in his farewell address, gives them a
historical summary of all that God had done for them over the centuries (verses
1-13). Then he sets before them a challenge to serve the Lord, who had been so
faithful and done so much for them (verses 14-28). You can almost hear the emotional
roar of voices as the nation openly pledges, “The Lord our God we will serve”
(24). To put it another way they were pledging to never forget what God had
done nor what He wanted them to do. Shortly afterward Joshua dies.
The story of the nation of Israel continues
in Judges. The writer says that after Joshua and the generation that were his
contemporaries died, “There arose another generation after them that did not
know the Lord or the work he had done for Israel” (2:10). Sadly the result of
this collective forgetfulness was, “The people of Israel did what was evil in
the sight of the Lord… And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers,
who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods”
(2:11-12). It took only short period of time, less than a full generation, for
the collective memory of the nation to develop amnesia. Forgetfulness yielded
faithlessness which generated abandonment of well-intended commitments.
One may wonder how there could be such
forgetfulness both individually and corporately in the nation. Perhaps the generation
that preceded the one that followed had failed to fulfill their spiritual duty.
The Psalmist states the duty clearly, “One
generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts”
(145:4). Elsewhere the Psalmist adds, “We will tell the next generation the
praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done” (78:4).
Reminders are the best way to counter spiritual forgetfulness. Some of the best
reminders are in the form of instructions, stories, acts, and deeds of a mighty
and faithful God.
Preoccupation may also have contributed to
forgetfulness. What may have been preoccupying them? A warning had been given
to the nation earlier that blessings could become a preoccupation. This would cause
the nation to forget the Lord their God who had delivered them from bondage and
blessed them (Deuteronomy 8:11-18). Christianity in the western world faces a
similar temptation. Often they are more interested
in their comfort and acceptance rather than being guided and obeying the Word
of God. Stephen Colbert, TV personality and cultural satirist, quips, “If this
is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to
pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge
that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and
then admit that we just don't want to do it.” Being preoccupied with the right
things helps us to remember to do the right things.
Perhaps their preoccupation was upon the
dangers of life. In Joshua’s day his nation was still facing a number of
hostile nations intent on destroying them. There is nothing as distracting as
danger. When self-preservation dominates one’s life, one may easily forget their
mission in life. Their mission was to obey and trust God’s promises to preserve
and protect them (Joshua 23:5). Memory often flees in the face of adversity.
Remembering what God has done and has promised to do strengthens our recall of
the mission God has given us. Christians today need to recall that Jesus calls
us to be “lights” in the world. “Lights” do not hide even in the face of danger
(Matthew 5:14-16).
Memory can be a fragile thing. Our natural
tendency is to forget and that tendency increases in certain circumstances.
Let’s challenge ourselves to remember to remember what God has done for us,
what He promises to do for us, and what he expects of us. It is sad that we
forget the words of one we love and who loves us.
