FORGETTING GOD

“After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the LORD or remember the mighty things He had done for Israel.”  (Judges 2:10 NLT)

When I read those words, my heart breaks. My heart breaks for this generation that is summarized in a sentence of not knowing God and who He is. And my heart also breaks because I know that it’s easy to read those words and think, how could they? And I know how easily that could be us, too.

In a world that is so distracted, and in a world where we compete for truth and what’s real, and in a world where there’s so much going on, so much that we would say is against the Word of God, this could easily be us. And I just want to say as one of your pastors, speaking on behalf of our pastors at Grace Church, the staff at Grace Church, the volunteer and leadership teams of Grace Church, this will not happen on our watch.

We will not be a generation that forgets, that leads to another generation not knowing the glory and goodness of God. But here’s the reality, it takes all of us. 

-- Pastor Taylor Brown, Grace Church, Cape Coral, Florida, from his message on 9/22/24

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REMEMBER JESUS

Can you still remember?  Are you still in love with Him?… Remember Jesus.  Before you remember anything, remember Him.  If you forget anything, don't forget Him.

Oh, but how quickly we forget.  So much happens through the years.  So many changes within.  So many alterations without.  And, somewhere, back there, we leave Him.  We don't turn away from Him… we just don't take Him with us.  Assignments come.  Promotions come.  Budgets are made.  Kids are born, and the Christ… the Christ is forgotten.

Has it been a while since you stared at the heavens in speechless amazement?  Has it been a while since you realized God's divinity and your carnality?

If it has, then you need to know something.  He is still there.  He hasn't left.  Under all those papers and books and reports and years.  In the midst of all those voices and faces and memories and pictures, He is still there.

-- Max Lucado in “Six Hours One Friday”


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LEST WE FORGET

Rabbi Harold Kushner had a story I found thought provoking.  It is quoted in Thomas L. Friedman's book, “The Lexus and the Olive Tree”.  Since Friedman didn't reference it, I assume it can be shared.  At least, it's worth a try: There was a village where people were afflicted with strange plagues of forgetfulness, a kind of contagious amnesia.  Starting with the oldest inhabitants and working its way through the population, the plague causes people to forget the names of even the most common everyday objects.  One young man, still unaffected, tries to limit the damage by putting labels on everything.  "This is a table," "This is a window", "This is a cow; it has to be milked every morning".  And at the entrance to the town on the main road, he put up two large signs.  One reads, "The name of our village is Macondo," and the larger one reads, "God exists."

Friedman says, "The message is clear.   We can and probably will forget most of what we have learned in life -- the math, the history, the chemical formulas, the addresses and phone numbers of the first house we lived in when we got married -- and all that forgetting will do us no harm.  But if we forget that there is a God, something profoundly human in us will be lost."

--  U.M. Bishop William B. Oden in “The North Texas United Methodist Reporter”  November 3, 2000

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THE ZEIGARNIK EFFECT

“One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3:13b-14 NASB)

Why do failures linger? Failures take on a life of their own because the brain remembers incomplete tasks or failures longer than any success or completed activity. It's technically referred to as the "Zeigarnik effect." When a project or a thought is completed, the brain places it in a special memory. The brain no longer gives the project priority or active working status, and bits and pieces of the achieved situation begin to decay. But failures have no closure. The brain continues to spin the memory, trying to come up with ways to fix the mess and move it from active to inactive status.

-- Perry Buffington

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