Remembering What is Important

Scientists say that we never forget anything. How can that be, you say, since we seem to forget a lot? The mind stores what happens, but we do not necessarily recall those things until we are reminded of them. Something has to unlock it.

Repression is a defense mechanism that we all use from time to time. It causes us to deny what is painful. We push down into our subconscious those things we want to forget. People repress feelings of guilt, grief, anger or anything we don’t want to think about. We manage to push the painful to one side in order to get past something very difficult. Oddly enough, sometimes, we repress the good things in life as we learn the habit of repressing the bad—it spills over to the good.

We must be taught gratitude, and then we still have to work at it to keep it fresh. Moses warned  Israel about forgetting: “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Deuteronomy 6:12).

Prosperity tends to make us forget the good things God has done for us. We often take our health for granted, but we only have to get sick to be reminded of what we have. We should be thankful if we have a job and a good income. Thank God for the air we breathe. I once got choked at a banquet and could not breathe. A man noticed that I was struggling, so he performed the Heimlich maneuver on me, and the piece of meat in my throat came unwedged. I was never so thankful to be able to breathe freely. We take for granted the sunlight, a shelter from the rain, a warm bed from the cold. We need to be thankful for food to eat and our family around us.

David speaking to himself said: “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits —  who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. (Psalm 103:2-5).

It is a great joy when one remembers our name. R.T. Kendall in (Just Say Thanks) told about a friend who works as a chaplain in a hospital for people suffering psychiatric disorders where a lady walked up and down the hall day after day crying out so sadly, “Does anybody here know my name?

God knows our name, and he doesn’t forget it. Isaiah wrote: “he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). Isaiah again reminds us of this: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15).