The Culture of Forgetting

The processes, fashions, and cultures of the world change over time. Though the methodologies of how we connect with other Christians, read the word and worship may alter over time, God’s truth and instructions do not. So the question for us is this: in God’s economy, is remembering a methodology, or is it truth and instruction? 

Our culture is all about the now and the instant, and often it can feel like many Christians and churches have also squeezed into this mold of negating the past. Proportionally speaking, there is little reference to the time between the end of the New Testament and the present-day Church. It seems that the countless miracles and numerous adventures of answered prayer seem to be excluded from our daily church life, with often comparatively little attention given to the stories of the founders of each church movement. We talk about standing on the shoulders of giants, but how much time do we take to find out what gave them their strength? 

Naturally, God is often ‘doing a new thing’ and we don’t want to miss that, but it seems that we have a myopic focus on what God is doing now, glossing over much benefit to be found in the past. How much time has your church spent focusing on what God has done previously rather than now? How much opportunity is there for the elderly to pass on stories to the young in the communities you are in? If an answered prayer has eternal value, then why the focus in church meetings on testimonies that have happened that week and only that week? When it comes to our faith, there is a difference between accessing facts, remembering facts in our minds, and owning these facts in our lives. 

It may be that remembering and recalling God’s deeds is a regular part of your devotional time, and if that’s the case, that’s wonderful. But it may be that you have been subject to the squeezing of the world’s mold in regard to the habit of not remembering or devaluing history more than you are aware. And yet remembering God’s deeds is a practice that is as close to his heart as it is foundational to the building of an intimate relationship with him.

Questions for Reflection 

1. Can you remember five times in your life when you have prayed and God has answered? 

2. When was the last time you sat down and took time to reflect, recall and remember something that God did in your life a few years ago?  

3. Of your closest Christian friends,  how many stories do you know of the miraculous things God has done in their lives or their salvation story? 

4. To what extent is remembrance part of your regular devotional routine?