Wednesday, February 24, 2010

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 mind shifts not back to the given beauty but on the memory of what was wished for.

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 apparently 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.

1 comment:

full of hope said...

This morning I was pondering a wonderful verse. Then I read today's blog and thought that it went right along with your reminder to focus on what we have rather than on what we don't have.
"The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy!" Psalm 126:3