Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Selective Memories

And when the Lord
your God brings you
into the land that he swore
to your fathers...
with great and good
cities that you did not build...
then take care lest
you forget the Lord,
who brought you out
of
the land of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery.

Deuteronomy 6:10a, 12

Memory is selective. Family history, friendships, marital relationships whatever the situation there are memories from which to choose–pleasant or otherwise. What we recall depends on us. Memories are the pavers that give shape to our life road. It is up to us which pavers we want to use.

Remembering our lives in the context of God’s abundance is a conscious choice. Unfortunately, it is sometimes easier to remember what we have not instead of what we have. Expectantly tearing into a beautifully wrapped gift we are suddenly blind sided. Inside wasn’t what we wanted and our memory shifts not back to the initial beauty but on the unexpected.

Daily, the world visually reminds us of what we we’re missing. After all, focusing on abundance wouldn’t be good for business. This is our house of slavery and God knows the difficulty of remembering His goodness while living in this residence. He, however, is in the business of giving us what we did not build. He wants to take us out of our house of slavery, calling us to remember both past and present His goodness. Granted, life isn’t fair and supposedly the world order revolves around the have’s and have not’s. But what is the criteria that determines these categories?

With an honest selection of memories we find that the have not’s are outnumbered. And, like the Israelites, whose lives were filled with have’s and have not’s, God asks us to pick up His pavers of goodness to shape our life road.

What memory paver will you pick up today?


God, thank you for
bringing me out of this
worldly house of slavery.
Help me to pave my life road
with the memories of
Your abundant goodness.
Amen.

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